The End is the Beginning
by Hi I'm Cammy
Summary: *SPOILERS* This story takes place after Astrid tells Sam she threw Petey to the bugs. The FAYZ wall starts to fall down, and the survivors think it's all over. But little do they know that the end of the FAYZ doesn't mean they can finally have a normal life. Almost all of the main characters are in it. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

The wall was breaking.

Astrid stood paralyzed next to Sam, having just told him that she threw Petey to the bugs. Astrid thought sacrificing Little Pete hadn't worked. But it seemed like it was, now.

"What is happening?" Jack asked, gaping up at the cracks racing up the wall. Astrid forgot he was standing there.

"It looks like the FAYZ is finally ending," Sam said. Astrid couldn't tell if he was disappointed or happy. She didn't know how to feel, either. When it first began, all she wanted was for it to end. But now, after all she had done, and she didn't even do the worst of things. Astrid stood staring, mystified, at the wall slowly breaking apart.

"Um, won't the pieces crush us all when they start to fall?" Jack asked. Astrid looked back at him. He was nervously watching more cracks crawl up the dome.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Jack. We should get everyone inside houses," Sam said. He started walking slowly backwards, still watching open-mouthed as the dome that had confined them for so long slowly weakened.

The three kids were shaken out of their shock and amazement as the dome emitted a loud, thundering boom that shook the ground. Sam, Astrid, and Jack started sprinting towards the town plaza. The many other kids were already rushing into houses, or staring at the wall that was now about to fall apart.

Sam started yelling at everyone to take cover immediately. But it was unnecessary. The dome shattered into millions of tiny pieces that slowly floated down to the Earth. It reminded Astrid of snow, even though there never was any snow in Perdido Beach.

Sam took a deep breath. Astrid could tell he was worried there were going to be problems with huge chunks of the wall plummeting towards the houses. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack frowning and shooing some kids away that were sticking their tongues out, trying to eat the falling bits of the dome.

"This isn't snow," Jack muttered and shot the kids who were still trying to eat the "snow" a look as he walked back towards Sam and Astrid. Astrid smiled. The smile soon vanished as she realized the FAYZ was over. It was all over. Or at least she hoped it was. The Gaiaphage is probably still alive, but the military could take care of that. It wasn't her problem anymore. It wasn't Sam's, either.

It didn't take long for the military to rush in. They started to take everyone to a military base camp for questioning. Sam put up a fight, trying to stay with Astrid, because he was supposed to get sent to a different place with all the other mutants. Finally, the soldiers trying to haul Sam away gave up when Jack started helping. Astrid would have laughed at the sight of a scrawny, nerdy 13-year-old pinning a tall, beefy soldier down to the ground in a matter of seconds. But more troubling thoughts were on her mind.

Why did Jack and Sam not lose their powers?

Astrid, Sam, and Jack were taken away to a base camp with Caine, Diana, Brianna, Dekka, Lana, Edilio and Quinn. Sanjit and Virtue were taken immediately by their parents, with Bowie, Pixie, and Peace. Albert was sent away to the Mcdonald's Headquarters. How they found out that Albert ran the Mcdonald's, Astrid didn't know. The rest were happily swept into their parents arms.

She did know that Drake was taken to a special base camp.

A very secure base camp.

Or at least she hoped.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, how are things?" Diana asked with a smirk in the back of the army van. The ten of them were all shoved back there. Astrid was shocked and angry at the same time because they weren't allowed to see their parents before they were taken away.

She was also a little relieved. She didn't want to tell them about Petey.

"I'm pretty good. Things could be better, though," Brianna replied with a sarcastic smile.

"What could be better than being crammed in the back of an army truck to be driven to a military base camp where we will be questioned, and then who knows what?" Quinn said sarcastically.

"What's going to happen to us?" Jack asked. Brianna, who was sitting next to him, put an arm around his shoulders.

"It'll be fine. They can't torture us or anything like that," Astrid said.

"I wish our powers would have went away. That's probably why they're taking us. For scientific research. We're all test subjects now," Jack moaned.

"Astrid, Edilio and I don't have a power," Quinn said. "So that can't be the reason.

"Sam and I, er, convinced the soldiers to bring you three along," Jack said sheepishly.

"I'm guessing 'convinced' means fought them until they agreed," Diana said with a smirk. Brianna started laughing.

"Man, I wish I could have seen some big tough army dudes getting a royal butt-kicking by two kids," she said. Almost everyone laughed, and that relieved some tension.

"Yeah, we'll all be fine," Edilio said reassuringly.

"And if things start to get rough, we could always break out. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard," Sam said with a grin.

"Caine, you're not going to turn against us, are you? Because we should all stick together," Lana said and peered at Caine suspiciously.

Caine didn't answered. He continued to stare gloomily at his feet.

Astrid pursed her lips and was about to say something to Caine, but the vehicle took a sharp turn. Astrid was slammed up against Jack, which she would have preferred to not have happened. After a lot of mumbling and groaning, the ten kids untangled themselves from each other. Now talking was nearly impossible, because the ride just got very bumpy.

"We-e-e-e must be g-o-o-i-i-n-g off ro-o-o-a-d," Jack said as he was being bounced around.

"Tha-a-a-nks-s-s Ca-a-ap-p-ptain Obviou-s-s-s," Diana muttered while trying to stay upright.

The drive got smooth again after far too long. Driving off road through rocky terrain with ten teenagers shoved in the back of an army van was not a good idea.

The truck stopped suddenly, causing the group to lurch forward.

"This dude seriously needs to work on his driving skills," Quinn muttered angrily as he rubbed his head where he accidently hit the side of the car.

Astrid heard car doors opening and slamming, two deep voices talking, and then feet crunching gravel. The back door of the van opened and light shined in. Before Astrid's eyes adjusted to the light, she was gruffly pulled out of the vehicle and dragged across pavement.

"Hey! Hey! Gentle! I'm kinda important, here!" Astrid heard Brianna complaining to the soldiers.

When Astrid's eyes adjusted, she saw a big, intimidating building. Hundreds of army equipment were in the parking lot, and behind Astrid, there was no road.

"Woah, is this area 51?" Quinn asked. Diana rolled her eyes and smirked.

Astrid looked around at her companions. Caine and Dekka were staring moodily at the military base. Brianna had her arms crossed and was giving the soldier holding her a pouting face. Edilio, Quinn, Sam, Diana, and Lana were staring in awe at the sheer size of the building in front of them.

Jack was the only one who didn't have a soldier holding onto him. Astrid guessed none of them wanted to be embarrassingly pinned against the ground, again.

They must have not known yet that Brianna could slap them 20 times before they could blink, Caine could fling them into the air with merely a thought, Sam could blast a white-hot laser through them, and Dekka could cancel gravity beneath their feet.

The soldiers started dragging the nine of them in, with Jack following behind. He had a smug look on his face because he didn't have to be dragged around. Astrid rolled her eyes. She almost even smiled. But then she remembered things were about to get tough.

The end of the FAYZ was just the beginning of a whole new nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3

Brianna was outraged. She couldn't believe it.

First, Brianna thought, the military just waltzed on in and kidnapped ten of the FAYZ survivors, without letting us see our parents! Then, they smugly shoved us into the back of a very cramped van. Not to mention, whoever was driving lacked driving skills. And now, somehow, the soldiers paired up the worst possible two and pushed them into a room, locked it, then left. Rude!

If Brianna ever got out of this place, she was not going to write a very happy letter to whoever was in charge. The worse part was who she had to share a room with.

Brianna and Dekka shared a room.

Brianna didn't know what to say to Dekka. She didn't want to talk to her about what happened during Dekka's surgery. So Brianna just awkwardly sat down and looked at her shoes. They were in tatters already, but not bad enough she had to get more.

Brianna liked Dekka as a friend. A really, really close friend. Like a sister. They were an extremely close pair of sisters who had their hands cemented, killed some people, and basically survived through hell together. But Brianna didn't want to be sisters with benefits.

Dekka cleared her throat.

"So, this has been a whirlwind of a day," she said sheepishly.

"Yeah. Definitely a crazy one," Brianna said back with an awkward smile.

The two of them spent the rest of the time having awkward small talk, or sat in silence.

Then the soldiers came back to get them.

* * *

Jack hated the pairings. Hated them. Jack wished he could have shared a room with anyone else, even Caine!

Well, maybe not Caine, but still, sharing a room with Diana was nightmarish to Jack.

He couldn't stop blushing, which he hated himself for. Jack tried to hide the constant redness of his face by looking at his shoes. Diana noticed and smirked.

"Poor Jack. He's feeling a bit uncomfortable," she said. Jack felt his face burning.

"Wow, it's just sad, how after everything I have done to you, you still have a crush on me," Diana drawled on.

"I do not have a crush on you!" Jack cried indignantly. Even he knew it was pointless. His blushing face said it all. Diana just laughed, but thankfully the rest of their time in their room was silence.

Jack noticed Diana putting a hand on her stomach and frowned. She must be having a stomach ache, Jack thought.

Then the soldiers came to get them.

* * *

Lana didn't really talk to Astrid that much. She didn't mind Astrid, so her pairing was actually fine. Lana and Astrid didn't talk. They just sat and thought about what was going to happen next.

Lana liked the quiet, but she missed Patrick. She had Sanjit take Patrick with him before the soldiers took Lana away.

Then, a while later, the soldiers broke the silence, and took Astrid and Lana away again.

Caine was put into a room with Sam. Caine didn't really care, he was planning to escape with Diana as soon as the moment presented itself. He had no interests in doing whatever Sam and his crew intended on doing. Caine didn't plan on hurting the other eight FAYZians, unless they got in his way. He just wanted to run away with Diana. He didn't know where he would go, all he knew was that he did not want to stick with Sam.

Caine and Sam didn't talk. He liked it that way. Nothing to talk about, anyways. Caine wondered what happened to Penny and Bug, they were loyal to him. Maybe he would find them when Diana and him escaped. The idea of Caine being alone with Diana again gave him a pleasant feeling.

Then the soldiers came back.

* * *

Edilio shared a room with Quinn. Honestly, he didn't mind Quinn too much. But he knew Quinn didn't like Edilio. Quinn was jealous of him because he thought Edilio would steal his best friend, Sam.

At least that was before Quinn started fishing and got his fishing crew.

Edilio didn't think Quinn hated him anymore.

So his roommate wasn't too bad. It could have been worse.

Edilio wasn't in a very talkative mood. Being freed from the FAYZ only to be taken into custody didn't exactly put one in the best of moods. Not to mention, Edilio was worried he would be shipped back to the Honduras.

Quinn didn't feel like talking, either. The two boys sat in silence.

Until the soldiers came back for them.


	4. Chapter 4

Jack watched as three men in suits and sunglasses entered his and Diana's room. Jack realized that they must work for the CIA, not the military.

"Looks like we're being visited by the Men In Black," Diana muttered under her breath. Jack had to bite his lip to keep from correcting her. He knew it was sarcasm, but he still felt the need to correct her.

"It's time to meet the General," one said. He was tall with a buzz cut, but was rather skinny.

The other two looked like professional wrestlers. It's a miracle their suits even fit. Jack realized that the two buff agents were meant to hold him. Jack decided to pretend like he couldn't break free of their grip. That should trick them into believing what the limits on his strength was, which might come in handy. Jack smiled. Already he was thinking ahead of when the ten of them might try and escape.

"What are you smirking at, kid?" one of the muscle-bound agents rumbled. He turned to the taller one.

"Didn't you say this boy was strong or something? Are you sure? He looks a little scrawny to me," he asked. Jack felt a little awkward as the three CIA agents looked him up a down. Jack saw Diana trying to hide a smirk.

"Yeah, I'm sure," the tall agent replied in a tired voice. "Now, get the kid and let's go."

The heavily muscled agents lumbered towards Jack. Jack sighed and let them grab onto his arms. He tried to make it seem believable as he pretended to struggle. The soldiers gave a smug chuckle, thinking they had him trapped. Jack hid his triumphant smile.

The taller one, who seemed to be in charge of the two holding onto Jack, grabbed Diana's shoulder lightly and led her out the room through the hallway. Jack was dragged, and not very carefully. He could have sworn the CIA agents dragging him were banging Jack against walls and doors whenever they had the chance, which was kind of hard to do, since Jack was in the middle of them. Nonetheless, they still managed to get Jack pretty bruised.

Jack was not in the best of moods when he was finally dragged into the largest room he had ever seen. It was about the size of football field. In the center of the room was a chair with straps to hold your hands and feet down, some scientific-looking equipment making a circle around the chair, and a lot of high-tech computers. Jack really wanted to get into those computers, he would be able to learn tons of stuff about what was going on.

But at the moment, he was more focused on what was facing towards the chair. It looked like an oversized needle from the future. Something doctors in year 4000 would give to giants for flu shots.

"I hope you people don't plan on sticking that needle into us," Jack heard Diana say to the man holding her. The CIA agent just smiled at her menacingly.

Jack heard footsteps behind him, and saw the rest of FAYZians come in. They each had their own personal CIA agent chauffeur holding onto their arms or shoulder. Jack was the only one being dragged by two men who had a steroids overdosage.

"Welcome, children," a cold voice in the shadows said. "You can call me the General."

Jack expected the General to dramatically step out, like every other villain in movies he had seen. But this person remained in the shadows, where Jack couldn't even see his silhouette.

"Hello, General. How are you today? Everything going great? I'm Brianna, by the way. People call me the Breeze," Brianna said in a cheery voice to the shadows.

"I will accept no childish comments," the General said coldly. "David, you know what to do."

The agent holding Brianna, David, punched her in the stomach. She gasped and doubled up, then sunk to her knees to the floor. Jack almost lost it, but he kept calm.

Now is not the time. Not yet.

Dekka lost it, though. She said a few words Jack had never even heard before and tried to run to Brianna.

The General just chuckled. "Tom," he ordered.

Tom, who was the agent holding Dekka, did the same thing David did to Brianna. Jack could tell Dekka tried to stay tough, but even she had to sink to her knees after the staggering blow. Jack saw Astrid out of the corner of his eyes, and it looked like she was praying. Sam was watching in complete fury. Quinn looked like he was about to be sick, which was probably what Jack looked like, too.

"Now, are you kids going to behave now?" the General chuckled cruelly. "Because I have a little task for you."

Jack was terrified. This person obviously had no morals, and was maybe as sadistic as Drake.

"Let's have the big tough man over there go first. I think your name is Caine, right?" the General asked Caine. Even his voice sounded of pure evil. It made Jack shiver.

Caine said nothing, he just stared directly at the spot where the General was most likely to be. Jack wondered why Caine wasn't doing his thing. Jack looked at Caine's hands. They were wrapped in a shiny material. So were Dekka's, Sam's, and Brianna's. How could Jack have not noticed that before? And how did the CIA know already? Something wasn't right.

Jack realized that if anything started going wrong, he was the only one that could help them all. He gulped nervously.

"Jordan, bring him to the chair," the General ordered. The man holding Caine dragged him over to the chair in the middle of the room and strapped him in. Caine couldn't escape. Jack heard the sound of static and then the General start to mumble something. He must have been talking through a walkie talkie.

The sound of hurried footsteps filled the air, as another man burst through the door. He was short and scrawny, had hair that looked like it had never been combed, and crooked glasses. He was also wearing a lab coat. This new person in the room looked like an adult version of Jack, expect Jack never wore an expression of pure evil.

"I'm here," the scientist huffed. He wasn't in the best of shape, so running down a hallway put him out of breath. He pushed his glasses up and looked around the room with a sneer. "Are these the famous Perdido Beach Anomaly kids?"

"Yes. Now Steve, get to work on the Extractor. Your first victim is ready," the General ordered.

"My name's not Steve, it's Carter. Dr. Carter Weigman," the scientist mumbled as he hurried over to the computers.

The giant machines started buzzing and groaning as they started turning on. Lights were blinking and the needle started spinning, heading towards Caine's chest.


	5. Chapter 5

Jack decided it was now or never, he did not want to see what the Extractor did. Not even on Caine.

Jack took a deep breath and yanked both his arms out of the agent's grip. They were too stunned to do anything for a few seconds, which gave Jack time to quietly smash their heads together. Or at least as quietly as possible when one uses super strength to bash two heads together. They immediately went unconscious. Jack prayed the two agents weren't dead. Jack hasn't killed anyone before, and he doesn't plan on doing it. Looking at the dents he made in their head made Jack sick to his core.

I hate my power, Jack thought. I wish it would just go away. I don't care if it can be useful sometimes.

But Jack knew that if he didn't have super strength, all his friends, and Caine and Diana, would be doomed.

Sam owes me some serious computer time after all this is over. And I'm talking days in a row.

The only person that noticed Jack escaping was Brianna. She looked up and beamed at Jack, and blew him an air kiss. She mouthed "Good luck," to him

Jack felt himself blushing. He turned and snuck into the shadows. They hid him completely. Jack decided that if he ever got the chance, he should thank the General for making it so easy to escape undetected.

Jack walked as quietly as he could towards Dr. Weigman and the computers. Brianna realized what he was doing and started trying to distract all of the CIA agents in the room.

"I'm surprised you aren't sitting behind a desk in an oversized armchair, so that when we came in you could dramatically swivel around, Mr. General," Brianna said with mock surprise. "'Cause isn't hiding in the shadows while you smugly talk a little cliche?"

"Do you want to be punched again, Breeze?" the General said with a sneer.

This guy is just asking for an ass kicking, Jack thought to himself.

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Brianna grumbled. She turned to the scientist hunched over the computers.

"How are you, Carter? Life going well? Have any kids?" Brianna asked Dr. Weigman so casually, it was like she was actually trying to have a conversation with him. Dr. Weigman frantically looked up, probably because he wasn't used to being called the correct name.

"Brianna, what are you doing?" Edilio whispered urgently to her. Brianna only turned and winked at him. Quinn and Lana looked like they couldn't believe what Brianna was saying.

"Um, why do you ask?" Dr. Weigman nervously looked at Brianna.

"Just trying to make some chit-chat as you stab that big-ass needle into Caine," Brianna said casually with a smile. Dr. Weigman stared open-mouthed at her. Lana, Quinn, and Edilio hid smiles.

Jack saw Astrid frown and look around. She saw the two agents who used to be holding Jack slumped against the floor and realization dawned on her face. Astrid cleared her throat.

"So what does the Extractor do?" she asked innocently. "I'm sure you can explain it to us kids, you seem very smart," Astrid said to Dr. Weigman with a smile.

"Don't tell them anything, Connor," the General said from the shadows. Dr. Weigman sniffed.

"My name is Carter," he muttered. But he stayed quiet.

By now Jack was almost to Dr. Weigman. And, knock on wood, no one except Brianna and Astrid noticed him yet. But the computers were directly in the middle of the room, along with the 'big-ass needle' that was still slowly inching towards Caine. Caine stared at it, and if looks could kill, that needle would have been melted into oblivion. In order to get to the computers, Jack would have no choice but to be noticed.

Jack looked around to see if the agents were armed. Unfortunately, Jack noticed each one had a tranquilizer. Jack locked eyes with Brianna, and hoped their silent conversation went like this:

Brianna, I'm going to throw something at David, the guy holding you. Then you run out and grab all the tranquilizers before everyone else reacts.

Brianna nodded and gave Jack a cocky grin. Jack prayed to God Brianna knew what he was trying to say. He would find out soon enough.

Jack grabbed the nearest heavy object he could find, which happened to be another Extractor, except this one looked broken and was tossed into a corner. The needle was rusting. Jack didn't want anyone to get tetanus, so he broke off all the rusted parts.

Now that Jack got a closer look at it, it looked like a giant pencil with a razor-sharp needle at the tip of it. It was all made of a shiny metal and was about twice as tall as Jack and three times as wide. It was easy enough for him to pick up. Jack walked towards David, getting ready to throw it.

He didn't have the best of aim. When he used to play dodgeball so long ago during gym at Coates Academy, Jack would always pretend to be hit and sit out. If he stayed in for longer, soon he would have been pummeled by dodgeballs going practically the speed of sound that were thrown by all the bullies, who, coincidentally, were all on the same team.

But Jack needed to have perfect aim this one time. He was about to throw the broken Extractor like a futuristic-looking spear, when he heard the General start to talk.

"Why is Kyle and Max slumped against the floor? With their heads dented? And where is the nerdy blonde kid?" the General muttered to himself. Jack closed his eyes and grimaced, waiting for the General to start yelling orders.

Instead he heard a chuckle that was right behind him. Jack felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Clever, Mr. Strong Man," the General whispered in Jack's ear. "But not clever enough."

Jack smiled at the General's mistake.

Jack turned around and hit the General across the head with the broken Extractor.


	6. Chapter 6

Brianna was in a sticky situation. And she hated being in situations she couldn't control. She got punched in the stomach, which hurt, and now Caine was about to be pierced with a needle made for giants.

But then she noticed Jack escaping.

That sneaky little nerd, Brianna thought with a smile. She was a little jealous that Jack got to be the hero this time, but she was also relieved that they had a chance to survive this place.

She hoped he wouldn't get noticed, because unfortunately he was their last hope. That was a bad sign. Brianna decided to distract the two over-confident CIA dudes with some casual chit-chat.

If only it worked. Soon the whole room was filled with the sickening crunch of someone being hit with a lot of metal. The General must have found Jack, and now things were going to get difficult.

"Um, General? Is everything okay?" Dr. Weigman called out nervously. Then he screamed and ducked as a broken Extractor came soaring out of the shadows to collide with the needle aimed at Caine.

Too bad it missed.

Brianna rolled her eyes. Of course Jack would miss at a time like this. But the agent holding her loosened his grip, so chucking the big hunk of metal served it's purpose. Brianna was already holding all the tranquilizers before David could realize his mistake.

"I think these are yours," Brianna said innocently, swinging the guns. It didn't take long for the shock to wear off, and the agents abandoned their hostages to chase Brianna. The other eight kids were already untying their hands to attack the CIA agents.

Brianna heard Jack yell at her to help Caine, so she sped over to where Caine was sitting and quickly untied the straps around his arms and legs.

Caine leaped out of the seat and telepathically grabbed Diana. He then ran out the door.

"You're welcome, jerk!" Brianna yelled after him. She soon forgot her anger when she realized there was a fight going on around her. Then she smiled and grabbed a broken shard of metal.

* * *

Diana felt the invisible force grab her. She didn't struggled. Diana figured it would only be a matter of time before Caine abandoned the rest of them and ran off with her. Caine still didn't know about the baby.

Diana didn't know what to say to Caine about the baby. She still hoped it wasn't real, but her stomach was definitely getting bigger. It wasn't too noticeable, yet.

"Caine, where do you plan on running off too?" Diana asked him as he sprinted through the hallways, carrying Diana behind him.

"Somewhere far away from here, and everyone else," Caine muttered. Diana sighed.

"You're not going to like this, Caine, but I think we should stick with Sam," that caused Caine to stop. He turned around to face Diana.

"Why?" he asked. Caine set Diana down.

"Obviously the government is after us. So we should stick together. Everyone from the FAYZ needs to forget whatever happened in there, and work together to stop the government from doing whatever they plan to do," Diana said. Caine looked off to the side. Diana reached for his hand. Caine grabbed hers.

"Now, let's go back and help The Breeze kick some military butt," Diana said with a half smile. Caine sighed and started walking back.

"What makes you think they'll even trust me?" Caine muttered as he walked.

"You're coming back to help them. That has to count for something," Diana replied.

Diana and Caine walked back towards the fight, hand in hand.

* * *

Quinn was witnessing one surprise after another. First, the FAYZ ended. Then, the army took them away so the CIA could poke them with some Extractor. Next, Jack was the hero out of everyone else. Quinn half expected Caine to come back and fight side-by-side with Sam.

He nearly lost it when he saw Caine and Diana walk in. Then Caine went over to fight side-by-side with Sam. Quinn's mind was blown.

Quinn wasn't much of a fighter. He was mainly watching the action with Astrid and Diana from the sidelines. Dekka was canceling gravity while Sam aimed at the floating agents. Caine was chucking some of them across the room. Reinforcements came out of the shadows. Brianna stole all their tranquilizers before they could shoot. Quinn didn't know where Jack or the General was.

Quinn felt a little useless. Edilio was shooting tranquilizer darts at the agents. Quinn did nothing except watch with the two girls.

"There's roughly 50 of them," Astrid said.

"We should do something to help," Quinn told Astrid and Diana. He started looking around the room. He saw a set of stairs and a catwalk going over where most of the fighting was.

"Should we drop stuff on them?" Quinn asked, pointing towards the catwalk.

"Um, I'd rather not, because..," Diana started saying, then trailed off. She guiltily at her feet and put one of her hands on her stomach. Diana obviously didn't like the idea of lifting heavy objects up stairs to drop them with no guarantee of hitting an agent. But Quinn saw Astrid look at Diana suspiciously.

"We should stop reinforcements from coming in," Astrid said, looking away from Diana and pointing to the doors. "There's three separate sets of doors. Quinn, you get the one to the far left. Diana will get the one to the far right, and I will get the one directly across from us."

Already more reinforcements were entering, except this time they were soldiers from the army.

Quinn headed towards the door he was supposed to close. This time, the soldiers had real guns. Brianna didn't have enough time to steal them before they started shooting, either. Bullets were flying through the air, and Quinn felt something warm start to run down his calf. He looked down and was surprised to see blood. Then the pain came. It felt like his leg was on fire, but he kept running to the door.

Quinn saw hundreds of troops jogging down the hallway towards their room. He slammed the door shut and locked it, hoping it would hold. Quinn looked around and saw Astrid and Diana shut the other two doors.

He sunk to the ground and examined his wound. The bullet only grazed the back of his calf, and it wasn't bleeding a lot. It still hurt like fire. Quinn hoped no one else got shot.

* * *

Lana was sprinting around the perimeter of the room, watching carefully if anyone got seriously injured. She saw Quinn sink to the ground out of the corner of her eye. Lana sprinted over towards him, but tripped over a body.

"Oof," she heard a voice say.

"Jack?" Lana asked, still dazed after her fall.

"Yep, it's me," Jack groaned, probably because Lana accidently kicked him in the head.

"Where are my glasses?" Jack asked. They fell off his head and landed next to Lana. She grabbed them.

"Right here, I got them," Lana said, getting up and handing the glasses to Jack. He was sitting on someone else, pinning their arms to the floor.

"Is that the General?" she asked, amazed.

"I'm pretty sure it is. Except I'm afraid to move, he might escape," Jack said while looking down at his hostage.

"Well, he is unconscious," Lana said. She got a good look at the General. He had graying hair that was in a tight haircut. Lana guessed the gray hairs were from stress, because he only looked to be about 35. The General wore a black suit and an earpiece. He looked very tall and fit. His eyes were closed.

"No, he's pretending to be unconscious. See how his eyelids move a little? When people are actually unconscious their eyelids don't move at all," Jack explained pedantically.

Sure enough, the General muttered a few rude words aimed towards Jack. Lana snorted.

"Well, you just hold him until everyone else finishes fighting. Then Caine can move him," Lana said and started running towards Quinn again.

Lana was surprised Jack was able to handle everything he did. That poor kid, he was only thirteen. Of course, she was only fifteen. All of them were too young for living through all of this.

Quinn looked up at Lana running towards him.

"Hey, are you hurt?" Lana asked hurriedly.

"Nah, I'm just a little sleepy. Thought it was a good time to nap," Quinn mumbled sarcastically. Lana almost smiled. Quinn was still being sarcastic when he was obviously in pain.

Quinn pointed down to his calf. "It isn't too bad," he barely whispered.

Lana took a look at the wound and it was worse than Quinn thought. The bullet had some sort of poison around it, because his skin was tinged green and pus was coming out. Lana placed her hands on his calf, ignoring Quinn's flinch. Thankfully, Lana was able to heal this type of poison.

"It's already almost back to normal," Lana said to Quinn.

"I already feel like I could run a marathon," Quinn said with a weak smile. "You better go check on everyone else, I'm good now."

Lana started to leave. "Try to not get shot. The bullets are poisoned," she yelled back to Quinn over her shoulder.

Just before she was out of earshot, she heard Quinn say "Dang it, I was planning on getting shot again."

Lana would have smiled, but then she saw Brianna fall down. Bleeding.


	7. Chapter 7

Drake was taken to a secure military base camp. He was unmercifully thrown into a cell. It had a bed with one scratchy blanket and a toilet. Nothing else. Drake even found a tooth in the blanket. Score for him.

He was scheduled to have an inspection of his whip any minute now. Soon two brave, but stupid, guards will come and unlock his door. Drake planned to attack them. Even if he got caught again, what could they possibly do to Drake? For some reason, Drake stopped turning into Brittney.

It's a shame, he thought. I was starting to warm up to her. Not.

Now Drake had no weaknesses! Except if he actually thought about it, Drake wondered if he was still unkillable, now that Brittney wasn't a part of him anymore. Drake didn't care. As long as he had his whip and a gun, he was unstoppable.

Drake heard footsteps. He smiled his shark grin.

Excellent. Fresh blood.

Two guards opened the cell door. They were heavily armed with machine guns. Drake was itching to hold those guns and shoot everyone in sight.

"Monster Kid, it's time for your whip's doctor appointment," one of the guards snickered.

Drake just grinned at him. The guards backed up. Even adults knew that this kid meant trouble.

It was too late for the two prison guards. Drake uncoiled his whip and snapped it across one of the guard's face. He started screaming, and Drake started laughing. Drake wrapped his whip around the other guard who was petrified.

Drake smiled his shark grin once more. Too bad that was the last thing the two guards saw.

It didn't take long for Drake to work his way out of the prison in the lowest level of the base camp. Now that Drake had a machine gun, he was invincible. Drake strut into the room you first walk into. No one tried to stop him, after seeing the trail of dead bodies he left behind him. Drake thought it was too easy, but he didn't mind. He wasn't one for conspiracy theories. Drake thought he just caught the guards off guard. Drake grinned at his pun.

Drake waltzed out of the base camp. The alarms started going off.

It's about time, Drake thought with a sadistic grin.

He hopped into the nearest car, which surprisingly had its keys in the ignition.

Idiots, Drake snorted. It's like they wanted me to escape.

Guards and soldiers came rushing out of the building, holding guns and tranquilizers. They started shouting at Drake to stop. Drake was surprised they actually expected him to stop. He started the engine and peeled out of the parking lot, making sure to hit a few troops. Drake grinned and gave the rest the middle finger as he drove away.

Drake planned to give two certain girls a special visit...

* * *

Katie was an intern for the CIA. She was the youngest intern for the CIA in it's history, to be specific. Only 15 years old. She skipped a few grades.

Katie was assigned to work with some professionals on a new top secret case- Case 43. Someone created a fake "CIA." It was a group of people who claimed they were the real CIA. So far, there was no information on who is in it. They have been very careful to cover their tracks. No one in the real CIA knew how it happened. The public didn't know yet, thank God.

"The latest information we have of Case 43 is that their leader goes by the name of 'the General,'" Dr. Andrew Reynolds drawled on in his monotone voice. Dr. Reynolds was the head of Case 43, and he was very thorough with new information. Katie brought in four cups of coffee just for her in preparation for this meeting. She had to stay awake because Dr. Reynolds was considered a genius, so practically everything he said was important.

"It seems like the General has Dr. Weigman working for him, plus several hundred soldiers. We have no records of these soldiers, which is odd. But, some of you may remember Dr. Weigman," Dr. Reynolds continued. Some CIA agents around the table nodded their heads and chuckled at the mention of Dr. Weigman. Katie never met him personally, but she heard stories. They weren't good stories.

Dr. Weigman was known as a crazy, mad scientists ever since the Anomaly happened. He said that an alien species was part of the meteor that hit the power plant thirteen years ago, and it must have mixed with human DNA to create a powerful, radioactive monster. He also said the radiation leaked into the food and water the children used and cause the mutations.

Everyone shrugged off his crazy conspiracy theories.

Dr. Weigman then came up with a horrifying idea. He designed the blueprints of a machine that could extract a quality out of a human and inject it into a new human. The only problem was the human that was used to take a quality from had a 99% chance of death.

Dr. Weigman planned to use it on the children from the Anomaly to get their powers, if they ever escaped.

Dr. Reynolds soon learned about this, and to give Dr. Weigman the benefit of the doubt, Dr. Reynolds said the scientist must be growing senile and fired him. The other option was to believe Dr. Weigman was a mentally unstable, power-hungry sadist.

Dr. Weigman wasn't heard from after that.

"We also think the General has hold of ten of the Perdido Beach Anomaly Kids. Seven of them having a mutant power," Dr. Reynolds continued grimly. He shuffled papers as the new information sunk in to the members of Case 43.

"Do you think Dr. Weigman built what he was planning on building here?" Katie asked quietly.

"We just have to hope he didn't," Dr. Reynolds replied.

Or hope those kids can escape, Katie thought to herself. She was amazed at what the had been through. No parents for months, yet they still survived. She was the same age as some of the Anomaly kids, yet she couldn't imagine how she would react in a situation like that. Katie would have been part of the Anomaly because she lived in Perdido Beach. But she was applying for her internship at the time.

"Now, I want-" Dr. Reynolds started before a siren cut him off.

CODE RED! CODE RED! PRISONER ESCAPE! The voice blared as red lights flashed.

Everyone in the room said a few well-selected words almost simultaneously as they rushed out the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Dekka saw it all. She saw Brianna stop for a second to smile her cocky smile at the soldier she was about to cut up with her metal shard.

Then a bullet hit her out of nowhere. Brianna was knocked onto the ground, her stomach bleeding.

Dekka froze, until Lana pushed her out of the way. Dekka fell onto a body, then hurriedly got back up and rushed to Brianna's side.

"Brianna! You're going to live, right?" Dekka said through tears.

"She'll be fine, the bullet missed her vitals," Lana said. Dekka looked at her, and could tell Lana was worried about something else.

"Go help with the fighting," Lana ordered Dekka. Dekka didn't move. She couldn't move. She watched in horror as Brianna's skin started turning a sickly green. Lana cursed. Brianna giggled, even though she was in extreme pain.

"You need to work on your bedside manner, Lana," she said with a smile. Then Brianna's smile disappeared and was replaced with a look of agony.

"Is she going to live? Was the bullet poisoned or something?" Dekka practically screamed in Lana's face.

"Dekka! Shut up already! If everyone else starts worrying about Brianna, we're all going to die! And you can't let Jack know or he'll come rushing over here and forget about holding down the General!" Lana whispered to Dekka. Dekka bit her lip. She was not planning on moving anytime soon. She cradled Brianna's head in her lap.

"Dekka, go fight," Brianna whispered. She grinned her cocky smile. "You should know it takes more than a poisoned bullet to the stomach to kill The Breeze."

"I will fight. Right here, so Lana doesn't get hurt," Dekka said. She brushed Brianna's hair back behind her ear and stood up, dusting herself off.

"Now who's the son of a b*tch who shot The Breeze?" Dekka yelled. Lana rolled her eyes.

"Didn't I just tell you to not announce the fact Brianna was shot to everyone?" Lana muttered. Dekka didn't hear her, because she was already in the midst of the fight.

* * *

Jack was getting bored. He heard the fight raging behind him. Of course, he didn't want to join the fight, but he also didn't just want to sit on the General.

"Now who's the son of a b*tch who shot The Breeze?" Jack heard Dekka yelled.

WHAT?! Jack thought. Brianna was shot!

Jack bit his lip, looked at the General, looked behind him at where Lana was sitting, then looked at the General again. Jack wanted to make sure Brianna was okay, but he also didn't want the General to escape. But he didn't want to knock the General unconscious, either. He didn't like punching, or any form of fighting, to be honest.

But Brianna is hurt.

But I could accidently kill the General.

But Brianna!

Jack sighed in frustration.

"Indecisive, hmm?" the General said with a smirk. His eyes were still closed.

"Shut up," Jack muttered. His mind was going almost as fast as Brianna.

How did he know I couldn't decide what to do?

Am I really that bad at hiding emotions?

And why won't he open his eyes?

And how did he even know about the powers already?

And how did he know that tying a mutant's hands stopped them from using their powers?

"You and that Astrid girl are pretty smart. Too smart. You two almost have me figured out," the General said. Jack didn't know how to react. Again, it was like the General read Jack's mind. And the General must have known what Astrid was thinking, too. And he still wouldn't open his eyes…

Jack was pulled out of his train of thought by another scream. It was Dekka. Dekka was surrounded by soldiers, and she was the only thing between Lana and Brianna. Jack looked over to where Caine, Sam, and Edilio were fighting. They seemed to have their hands full. Diana and Astrid were watching with their mouths opened in a corner, and Quinn was still slumped against the wall. Jack had to help.

"I'm sorry about this, Mr. General. Try not to die," Jack said. He closed his eyes and hit the General in the temple. The General lost consciousness immediately and Jack checked his pulse. Jack didn't know anything about what a normal pulse should be, but it seemed like nothing was wrong, so Jack let out a sigh of relief. He bent a long, thick piece of steel around the General because he couldn't find any rope, and ran to help Dekka.

* * *

Astrid wished she wasn't so useless. She noted there were only about 20 left, since Astrid, Diana, and Quinn stopped reinforcements from coming. At least she helped Sam a little.

Sam was obviously getting tired, Astrid could see it. His aim got more and more off, and his laser started getting thinner and lasted shorter than usual. Astrid could tell Sam was trying not to kill anyone, only aiming for arms and legs. It made the fight take longer, but that was okay if it meant Sam didn't have to live with the knowledge he killed a soldier, even if said soldier was trying to kill him.

Astrid had to do something. She looked to the other side of the room. Jack and Dekka were fighting together while Lana healed Brianna. She couldn't tell if Brianna was getting any better or not. Astrid looked at the computers in the center of the room.

A thought hit her, and she was furious at herself for not thinking of it before.

Where did Dr. Weigman go?


	9. Chapter 9

"Diana, we need to find out where Dr. Weigman went. Did you see him leave the room?" Astrid asked urgently. Diana raised her eyebrows.

"No, actually," she said. Diana started looking around the room, too. "Well, isn't he an evil adult version of Jack?"

"Yes… what's your point?" Astrid asked skeptically. Diana smirked.

"Wouldn't Jack hide with his computers at a time like this?" she said. Astrid laughed and started to get up.

"Wait, Astrid, I have to tell you something," Diana said and bit her lip. It looked important, so Astrid leaned down.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm, I'm going to be a mom. And Caine is going to be a dad," Diana whispered. Her eyes were big and looked worried. It took a while for Astrid to grasp that.

"What?" Astrid said, shocked.

"Yeah…" Diana muttered, looking down at the ground. She got up and started walking towards the computers, but Astrid grabbed her shoulder.

"No, you stay here. I'll find Dr. Weigman," Astrid said. "You stay safe and protect the baby."

Diana was about to object, but Astrid gave Diana a look that said No matter what you say, I won't change my mind.

Diana smiled and sat back down. She made a good choice convincing Caine to come back and stick with Sam's crew.

Astrid ran off to the computers. It didn't take long for her to find Dr. Weigman curled up in a ball, hiding under one of the enormous computers.

"Hello, Dr. Weigman," Astrid said brightly. The scientist jumped and hit his head on the computer.

"You shouldn't scare me like that! I could have broken this computer!" He cried indignantly.

"Why don't you call your soldiers off my friends?" Astrid said coldly. Dr. Weigman started quivering.

"I don't think I should do that. Where is the General, anyways?" Dr. Weigman asked. Astrid hoped Jack took care of the General, but she wasn't for sure.

"That doesn't matter, Carter. What matters is you order the attack to stop," Astrid said with a smile.

"You are just kids! You can't possibly think you could win this war!" Dr. Weigman cried.

"War? What war?" Astrid asked. She frowned. Dr. Weigman got a smug look on his face.

"Exactly. You're just kids. You haven't even realized yet what is about to happen, what this is the beginning of," he said. Astrid had enough. She grabbed the scrawny scientist by the ear and dragged him across the floor to where Diana was. It looked like Astrid was dragging a bad kid.

"Ow, ow, ow. Careful! This is humiliating and painful and I order you to let go of me!" Dr. Weigman whined as he was being dragged. "Wait! I don't want to leave my computers! I just got an upgrade on one of them!"

"Find something to tie him up with, Diana," Astrid said in a tired voice after she pushed a grumbling Dr. Weigman against the wall. Diana found some rope and started wrapping Dr. Weigman in it.

"Dr. Weigman, is there anyway to control that catwalk up there?" Astrid asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Dr. Weigman said with an eyebrow raised. Astrid guess that meant there was a way to control it.

"Because we don't like the way the room is set up. Not very good feng shui," Diana said sarcastically.

"Someone's a little grumpy," Dr. Weigman muttered. "And yes, you can control it with those computers."

"But I'm not telling you how," Dr. Weigman added like a pouting toddler. Astrid figured he wouldn't tell. But Jack could figure it out. Astrid planned to use the catwalk as their escape route.

"Seems like the Teenage Mutant Super Kids are done fighting," the scientist grumpily said. Astrid looked around, and sure enough, Sam, Caine, Edilio, Dekka, and Jack were standing, exhausted, surveying the damage they caused. Lana was still healing Brianna, and Quinn was standing up, stretching his leg.

Astrid watched Jack, Sam, Edilio, Quinn and Dekka all run over to where Brianna was laying. Caine slowly started swaggering towards Diana.

"Caine, wait!" Jack called. Caine turned around, surprised. Astrid frowned, got up, and started walking towards Jack.

"What is it, Jack?" Caine asked.

"I need you to carry the General," Jack said. He pointed towards the wall opposite of where Dr. Weigman was tied up. "He's over there, unconscious and wrapped in a piece of steel."

"Why can't you carry him?" Caine asked with his eyebrow raised. Jack shuffled his feet.

"Well, I don't want to mess up and have him escape," he said. Caine let loose an exasperated sigh.

"Caine, you should be grateful Jack was able to get us all free," Astrid said. Caine shot Astrid a murderous look, which only caused Astrid to raise an eyebrow. Jack muttered something along the lines of how he didn't like everyone making a big deal out of it.

Jack led them to where the General was supposed to be. But all that was left was a piece of bent steel.

"Oh no. I messed up. I messed up big time," Jack said. He looked like he was about to cry. Astrid put an arm around his shoulder as tears started to fall down his face.

"It's okay, we'll get him next time," Astrid said soothingly. Jack just shook his head and looked at his feet.

"It's all because I'm a big wimp. I didn't want to hurt him or anything, even though he tried to kill us all. And I had to check on Brianna, I couldn't just sit there when she could be dying," Jack sobbed. "Now he could trap us again and kill us. And he won't make the same mistakes again."

Astrid didn't know what to say. Surprisingly, it was Caine who spoke.

"You shouldn't regret not killing someone," Caine mumbled in a voice barely audible. He awkwardly nodded at Jack's shocked expression and walked towards Lana.

Jack sniffed and wiped his eyes. "Great. Now I'm even more of a wimp because I cried. I kinda always was, though," Jack said and laughed. Astrid awkwardly patted Jack on the back.

Diana ran up to them.

"Dr. Weigman disappeared!" she cried. "I looked away for one second and he was gone!"

That sobered Jack up. He locked eyes with Astrid. She knew they were thinking the same thing.

"The General took him…" Jack started, fear and confusion written all over his face.

"...but left Diana unharmed," Astrid finished in a dazed voice. She frowned, trying to make sense of it all.

Something strange was going on.

Astrid's thinking was interrupted by Lana.

"It's Brianna!" she yelled.


	10. Chapter 10

The CIA headquarters was filled with scrambling workers and papers flying. They hadn't had a code red in a long time. Katie had no idea what to do, so she just stood out of the way, mystified. A giant, flat screen TV slowly sank down from the ceiling, and on it was a live feed from Anomaly Base Camp 4.

"Drake Merwin, the juvenile who was said to have been the cause of murders in the Anomaly, has escaped Base Camp 4. I repeat, Drake Merwin has escaped Base Camp 4," the person in charge of all the Anomaly Base Camps said through the television. Katie didn't bother to learn his name.

Katie watched in awe as employees frantically talked on phones held with their shoulders as they typed on computers and rifled through papers. She felt out of place, not having anything to do.

"Miss Kimmett!" Katie turned around at the sound of her last name. It was Mr. Reynolds. He was talking on two phones at once and typing on an iPad that had a keyboard hooked to it.

"Miss Kimmett, I think you should go along with the rescue squad heading towards where we believe the Perdido Beach Anomaly Kids are. You're about the same age as them, so you would most likely understand them more," Dr. Reynolds started before he was interrupted by a beeping noise from his iPad. He started typing furiously, then let loose a sigh of relief.

"As I was saying," he continued, unfazed by an employee tripping and the mountain of paper he was holding avalanching all over the floor, "you don't have to go if you are uncomfortable. Seeing as you are only an intern, this is a big task."

"I want to go," Katie said almost immediately. Dr. Reynolds raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" he said. "Well, make sure- ah, excuse me."

Dr. Reynolds was cut off by an employee handing him another phone.

"I have to take this call," Dr. Reynolds told Katie. Katie decided not to mention he was already talking to two other people. "You're ride leaves in 15 minutes and is waiting out front."

Dr. Reynolds left, talking to three different people on phones and typing away on his iPad. Katie did not want his job any time soon.

She hurried to the front lobby and out the door. Katie wasn't exactly given a lot of time to get ready before she had to go. The other three CIA agents she would accompany were already in the van.

Her ride was meant to arrive after the FBI already secured the area and safely evacuated the 10 kids. Then, Katie would go and meet the kids, make them feel comfortable, and ask them questions about practically everything that happened to them in their life.

The drive was supposed to take one hour. Katie tried to make some chit-chat with the other three agents, but they weren't known for their conversation skills. Almost everyone that worked in the CIA's office was socially awkward and nerdy.

"So, how are you guys?" Katie asked after 10 minutes of driving. The person sitting next to her, Trevor, looked at her with his eyes wide open and made a squealing noise a trapped animal might make. He acted like Katie was standing over him with a knife instead of asking him a casual question.

"Alrighty then," Katie said with an exasperated smile. "How about some music?"

Much to Katie's dismay, the person sitting in the passenger seat turned on the Star Wars theme song.

It was going to be a long day.


	11. Chapter 11

Lana was worried. Brianna's bullet wound was already healed up, you couldn't even tell she was shot. But the poison…

Sam picked up Brianna's limp arm and looked at her arteries or veins or whatever they are called. Lana didn't care about technical names.

"They're bright green," Sam said. Astrid, Diana and Jack arrived.

"That means the poison is in her bloodstream," Astrid said. Lana looked at Dekka. She was sitting holding Brianna's head in her lap with silent tears running down her face. Edilio sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"She's still breathing and still has a pulse, Dekka. She won't die," Edilio reassured her. Dekka didn't look reassured.

"Wait, the green in her veins or arteries is fading!" Sam cried excitedly. He accidently dropped Brianna's arm and Dekka practically hissed at him.

"It's called veins. Blood turns blue when there's no…" Jack started explaining in a quiet voice. Lana tuned him out, she didn't need a medical lesson. No one bothered to say shut up to him. Maybe because he was watching his girlfriend almost die.

"She's definitely getting better, look at her skin! It's turning back to normal," Diana said. Everyone had a flicker of hope that Brianna was going to be fine.

"The poison has a side effect though. It still hurts like crazy, and it's hard to walk. So she is going to be out of action for a while when she gets better," Quinn said. He let that sink in.

"This isn't good. If what Dr. Weigman said was true…" Astrid started saying but then trailed off. Lana didn't care, she had enough on her plate as it was. She saw Jack start to look around out of the corner of her eye. He must have finally stopped giving everyone the artery/vein lecture.

"Um, I'm gonna go see what these computers can tell me," he said and started walking towards them. Lana realized computers probably make him feel better.

After a lot of waiting, encouraging thoughts to reassure Dekka, and random outbursts of joy from Jack who was hunching over a computer, Lana decided she has done all she could. Brianna's skin was back to the normal color, her veins were all blue again, and she was still breathing and had a pulse.

"She's not dead, and I'm pretty sure she won't be dead," Lana said. Dekka now was crying tears of joy.

"She won't be up for a while, and if what Quinn said is true, she shouldn't even move for a long time," Lana added. The Breeze was going to be out of the battle for a while. She wouldn't like that. The group of kids were interrupted by Jack.

"You might want to see this!" Jack yelled. The nine FAYZians rushed over to Jack, with Dekka carrying Brianna. Caine offered to carry her, but Dekka shot Caine a murderous look and he back off.

Jack was looking at a computer screen with hundreds of paragraphs of tiny writing all over it. Lana was thankful there were two kids who were smarter than her and liked reading this kind of stuff so she never had to. Jack had already read the whole thing and was giving them a 'brief' summary.

"Jack, get to the point already," Caine groaned after ten minutes of Jack rambling on about some amazing scientific advancement.

"Okay, okay. Anyways, the Extractor is meant to extract, or remove, a single mutation in a human's DNA, like our powers, and inject, or put, the mutation into someone else," Jack said in his usual pedantic way with a smug expression. Caine looked like he was about ready to punch Jack after that.

"So that means Dr. Weigman and the General want to take our powers out and put them into someone else," Astrid said. Jack nodded.

"I think we should have figured that out by the name of the machine without having to have Jack hack into their computer," Diana said sarcastically.

"She has a point. The name 'Extractor' is kinda obvious," Lana said.

"I still would have hacked into the computers, anyway. Now, I'm trying to find out if they could somehow duplicate the mutation to put in multiple people…" Jack trailed off and started typing away.

"What I don't understand is why the CIA tried to kill us. Aren't they supposed to be the good guys?" Edilio asked. Astrid frowned.

"They may not be the CIA. I don't think the CIA would ever do anything along the lines of this," Astrid said. Sam nodded.

"The CIA isn't evil, it's good. Or at least that's how they're supposed to be," he said.

"Guys," Jack started. "This is bad."

"What?" everyone else, except Brianna, said in unison.

"They can multiply the mutation," Jack said and glanced worriedly at the circle of kids around him.

"So? What does that mean?" Quinn asked. Astrid answered for Jack.

"It means the General wants to make an army of soldiers with our powers," she said.

* * *

Dr. Weigman was stumbling along after the General. He wasn't what one would consider graceful. But that didn't matter, all that mattered was he was an evil scientist with an IQ that went through the roof. And he listened to everything the General said so he didn't die in a tragic "accident."

"I underestimated these children. I specifically made the telepathic one go first because I thought he was the only one most likely to escape," the General mumbled. Dr. Weigman didn't know if the General was thinking outloud or talking to him, so the scientist stayed quiet. Suddenly the General turned on Dr. Weigman, causing the clumsy scientist to bump into him and fall down.

"And you, you incompetent fool! That Extractor moves slower than a snail!" the General spat.

Dr. Weigman whimpered. He knew the only reason the General kept him around. It was for the Extractor. If it wasn't because of that, the General would have treated Dr. Weigman similar to how a wolf treats a sheep.

"And," the General continued. "You just hid under your computers like a scared child, where the actual children could easily find you!"

Dr. Weigman was terrified the General would kill him. Wouldn't care anymore. Would try and find someone else who could operate the Extractor. Dr. Weigman was almost 100% positive no one else knew enough about technology and computers to operate the Extractor. Almost.

Just before the General seemed about ready to rage on Dr. Weigman, he composed himself and curtly turned around. He started walking again.

"Keep up, Carson," he snapped. Dr. Weigman scrambled up off the floor. He decided now was not the time to correct the General.

"You are going to improve the Extractor while I think of a new plan. A plan that these children won't be able to escape. I won't make the same mistakes again," the General ordered. Dr. Weigman soon forgot his near-death experience because he was giddy to work in the lab again.


	12. Chapter 12

Sam was sitting next to Astrid with his arm around her shoulder. There was nothing else to do but wait. Wait for someone to come up with a plan to escape. Or for Jack to figure out how to move the catwalk. Sam still didn't understand Astrid's plan. It seemed impossible. She wanted to angle the catwalk towards the ceiling and escape via the roof.

Of course, everyone expected Sam to think of how to escape. Even Caine expectantly looked over at him, then quickly looked away. Sam wanted to tell everyone that he just didn't know. Quinn suggested they break down a wall and sprint out. Astrid pointed out the fact that they didn't know what was on the other side of the wall.

"Why don't we just stack things on top of each other to create a stairs to the roof, instead of waiting for Jack to finish fiddling around with the computers," Diana said.

"I don't see how getting onto the roof will help us at all. The only difference will be we are higher up and outside. It's not like we can just jump off. And, what if people are outside and they spot us?" Edilio said. Astrid sighed.

"I honestly don't know what to do. It was just an idea," she said.

"Well, I would like some fresh air. How about you guys?" Sam said. "We might as well go up on the roof instead of wait for someone to break in here."

"Okay, I'm in. Jack, how much longer?" Lana said. Jack looked frustrated. Sam was surprised Jack could even get frustrated when working with a computer.

"I don't think we can control the catwalk with this, okay? I've been searching and searching, and nothing," Jack snapped. He was definitely not used to not being able to do something with a computer.

"Well, we'll just do what Diana said," Dekka suggested. Jack looked furiously at the computer.

"Alrighty then," Sam said and got to his feet. He helped Astrid get up. "So, Caine and Jack can move the big stuff, and Edilio and I can move the smaller stuff."

"I can help," Dekka said. Sam shook his head.

"You continue looking after Breeze," he said. Dekka didn't complain.

Caine didn't really need Jack, Sam, and Edilio helping. In fact, Sam even suspected the three of them were slowing the process down. But Sam didn't just want to sit there as his brother did all the work.

Finally, there was a pretty much stable stairway touching the ceiling. It definitely did not pass safety standards, and it didn't look pretty, but it worked.

"Okay, now to break a hole through the roof," Astrid said. Everyone looked towards Caine.

"Well, I would have to fling one of those enormous computers to do it, since we used all the other heavy objects," Caine said. Sam counted to three in his head, waiting for Jack to protest.

"No!" Jack said with a shocked expression. Sam smiled to himself. Edilio rolled his eyes.

"Well then you have to break through the roof," he said. Jack groaned and complained as he walked up the dangerously balanced stack. When he reached the top, he dramatically groaned one more time, then started punching the ceiling. It didn't take long for him to make a decent-sized hole. Sunlight and fresh air streamed through the hole. Jack jumped back down.

"There. You happy?" he grumbled. Astrid patted Jack on the back.

"Let's go," she said and started walking up. The rest of them followed. Dekka still carried Brianna, even though Jack offered to carry her because Dekka was clearly getting tired.

"Well, we did end up escaping," Quinn said with a smile once they were on the roof. Everyone was relatively happy for seeing sunlight and breathing fresh air. Well, as happy as one could be when they were abducted by a man who called himself the General, learned an evil scientist planned to use their powers to make an army, and watched Brianna get shot and almost die from poison. They're happiness was short-lived.

"There's kids on the roof!" Sam heard someone from the ground shot. Caine cursed.

"Well, it was a nice break, wasn't it?" he said.

"They're getting guns!" Astrid yelled. She was looking over the edge of the roof. Sam pulled her back.

"Stay away from the edges," Sam ordered. Jack started moaned.

"We're doomed. We're so doomed. Doomed," he whimpered. A loud, chopping noise interrupted Jack.

"That's a helicopter!" Quinn cried. Sam saw it had big, yellow letters that said FBI on it.

"Should we trust it?" Edilio yelled over the noise of the helicopter's blades. It was coming straight for the roof, lowering a ladder. Then the people on the ground started shooting at the kids.

"Well, they aren't shooting at us, so yes!" Lana yelled.

"Forget the ladder," Caine said. He flicked his hand up and Diana went flying, straight into the helicopter's open doors. Sam heard Diana curse from inside the helicopter. Caine then proceeded to throw Lana.

While Caine was busy tossing kids into the helicopter, Sam risked a glance over the edge of the roof. The soldiers on the ground where climbing up the side with a very tall ladder.

"You better hurry, Caine!" Sam yelled. Only Jack, Dekka, Brianna, Caine, and Sam were left.

"Jack, hold onto Brianna while I through you. And no complaining, Dekka!" Caine yelled. Dekka reluctantly handed Brianna to Jack as the two of them went flying. Caine was about to throw Dekka when Sam felt a hand on his back. He looked around and saw that all the soldiers had made it to the roof. One was leveling a gun at the helicopter.

"Go!" Sam screamed at the helicopter. "Go! Now!"

Sam heard Astrid screaming his name as the helicopter pulled away. But they had to leave before the soldiers started shooting. Sam, Caine, and Dekka were surrounded.

"We aren't going to try and fight," Sam said. "Just let the helicopter go."

The soldier holding onto Sam sneered. "For now we'll let the helicopter escape."

Sam wished he could have said goodbye to Astrid. He didn't know if he would see her again. Probably not. Sam, Caine, and Dekka were dragged down to the prison cells in the basement of the building.

At least Astrid is safe, Sam thought. At least she's safe.


	13. Chapter 13

Katie was nervous about meeting the kids. She heard that only seven of them made it out. She could never understand how much in despair the three that had to be left behind were in. As soon as Katie did what she had to with the kids, she wanted to help them rescue the other three. And if Katie wasn't allowed to, she would sneak them out. Katie was not going to let those kids abandon their three friends.

"Miss Kimmet, whenever you're ready," an FBI agent said as he poked his head through the door.

"Alrighty. Thanks for knocking," Katie said with a fake smile. The agent stared with his mouth open for a few seconds, then quickly left. Katie got up and made her way to the room the seven Anomaly Kids were being held.

She knocked on the door.

"Come in," a girl said from inside.

"Hi, I'm Katie Kimmet. You can call me Katie," Katie said with the friendliest smile she could manage as she walked in. The seven kids looked her over suspiciously.

"Hello," a boy said uneasily. He had kind eyes and dark skin. "I'm Edilio. The kid sitting next to me is Quinn," he said while pointing to a very tan boy about the same age who smiled. "and on the other side is Computer Jack, or Jack," Edilio pointed to a kid about 13 holding another girl who appeared to be asleep. Jack smiled then awkwardly cleared his throat. "And on Jack's right is Astrid, Diana, and Lana. And Brianna is, erm, sleeping right now," Edilio finished. The ones named Diana and Lana nodded at Katie, and Astrid stood up.

"Are you from the real CIA?" Astrid asked. Katie was taken aback by her suddeness. She didn't expect them to be this alert after narrowly escaping from death. They must be used to it.

"Uh, yeah. I'm guessing you guys met the General and Dr. Weigman?" Katie asked and got a nod in return. "Er, we're suspecting they're creating an army or something along those lines." Katie noticed the kids sharing nervous glances. They knew information about an army. Katie decided not to ask them just yet.

"Are we going to save Sam, Caine, and Dekka?" Diana blurted out. Katie looked at all of the kids. She could see it in their eyes all they wanted to do was a rescue mission.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to leave you guys until we get your three other friends. And if the CIA doesn't allow it, well, I'm sure you seven are fine with breaking the rules, right?" Katie said with a crooked smile. She could tell she had almost earned their trust. Astrid started walking around the room, inspecting the walls and corners.

"There aren't any one-sided glass walls or security cameras, if that's what you're looking for," Katie said. Astrid stopped looking a studied Katie's face. Katie cleared her throat uneasily.

"So, is Brianna okay? Do you want to lay her down in a chair?" Katie asked Jack. Jack opened his mouth to start to talk, but the girl named Lana interrupted him.

"She got shot in the stomach, but since I have the power to heal, she's fine. The bullet had poison on it, and I cured that, but it has a side effect and she'll be out of action for a while. Since she has the power of super speed, that kind of sucks for us. It means our four best fighters are out, no offence Jack and Edilio," Lana said. Her tone was friendly, but Katie felt like Lana's eyes were staring straight into her soul, daring her to freak out about the fact Lana casually brought up the fact that the kids had powers. Katie resisted the urge to whimper.

"So, do you understand that we probably won't manage a rescue mission if the FBI doesn't help us?" Astrid said while staring daggers at Katie.

"Geez, calm down guys. I'm on your side, no need to try and scare me away. Not the best of days, huh?" Katie said with an uneasy smile. The Anomaly Kids stared in confusion and shock at Katie, now.

"Uh, did I say something wrong?" Katie asked. She glanced nervously at them.

"It's just, you act like Brianna," Jack said with a sad look at the girl laying in his lap. All the others fell silently and looked sadly at their hands or Brianna. Katie felt uncomfortable.

"Um, so, what powers do you seven have, if any?" Katie said, trying to end the uncomfortable silence.

"Well, as I said I can heal almost anything," Lana said. Katie nodded, making a mental note of that.

"I can detect the strength of other people's powers, so basically nothing important," Diana said. She put a hand on her stomach and flinched, fear and shock written on her face. Katie decided to bring that up, later.

"And I'm really good with computers," Jack said. Astrid sighed.

"And?" she asked exasperatedly.

"And I have super strength," he mumbled. Katie almost snorted. She knew one of the kids had super strength, but she would have guessed Edilio or Quinn.

"And Brianna has super speed, and the rest of us are normals," Quinn finished. Katie's face fell. That meant the telekinetic kid, the one who could cancel gravity, and the one who could shoot doom-bringing lasers from his hands where the three left behind. The Anomaly Kids had a point, they would not do well in a rescue mission.

"Where did the other survivors end up? The other ones with powers?" Astrid asked Katie. Katie shrugged. Jack's eyes got big.

"We could easily rescue them if we found Taylor or Bug!" Jack exclaimed. "Taylor can teleport to anywhere she has been, and Bug can turn invisible, like a chameleon."

"Huh. Well, you guys are probably used to all this superpowers stuff, but I still have to wrap my head around this stuff," Katie said as she shook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the kids exchange smiles. She finally had their trust. Now she would ask them about the army…

Katie was interrupted by Brianna grunting and opening her eyes.

"Brianna!" Jack gasped. Everyone in the room gathered around her.

"How are you feeling?" Edilio asked calmly.

"Better than ever. I'm ready to give that General a royal butt-kicking," Brianna said in a weak voice with a smile. She looked around and her eyes found Katie. "Woah, who's the new girl?"

"This is Katie, she works for the real CIA," Astrid said and explained everything they talked about. Brianna started grumbling when Astrid said she wouldn't be able to fight for a long time.

"I'm just fine," she said and started to get up until she winced and fell back down. "Tomorrow I'll be just fine."

Brianna realized for the first time she was laying on Jack's lap. "Um, hey… Jack? Can you set me in my own seat?" she asked awkwardly. Jack blushed and carried her to a padded couch and laid her down.

"Erm, anyways," Katie said. "I noticed you guys exchanging glances when I mentioned an army. If you trust me enough, can you tell me what you know? I don't want you to think it's against your will…" Katie trailed off and bit her lip. The seven kids looked at each other. Katie saw Jack nod at Astrid. Astrid took a deep breath.

"They want to steal our powers and inject them into multiple people, creating an army," she said slowly, watching Katie's reaction to each word. This was worse than she expected…


	14. Chapter 14

"So... you know about the Extractor?" Katie said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yes. We do. Do all you government workers know about it?" Lana said with heavy cynicism. Katie could tell she had not earned her trust.

"Yeah, we just had a meeting about it before we heard Drake Merwin escaped," Katie said. She didn't expect everyone to gasp and nearly faint when she mentioned Drake escaped.

"I thought it was secure! Oh God, oh God, he could be coming here at this very second!" Astrid moaned. Jack was whimpering, Brianna mumbled something along the lines of "bring it, I can take him," and the rest of them were in petrified silence. Katie tried to calm them all down.

"We would know if he's walking up the front lawn, guys," she said, trying to not roll her eyes. Diana noticed.

"You weren't in there," she said. "You couldn't even imagine what he could do, what we've been through." Katie looked down at her feet.

"I know that, I'm not going to even act like I do. But I want to help you now," she said.

"Well, I'm up for rescuing Sam, Dekka, and Caine right now. Anyone else?" Quinn said. Katie shook her head.

"First I need to ask for permission," Katie started. She saw Brianna start to open her mouth and cut her off. "But, if they say no we'll leave tonight. I'm guessing at least one of you knows how to drive?"

* * *

Dekka was lying on a cold floor. She groggily opened her eyes and sat up. Caine wasn't in the room, but Sam was pacing.

"Hey, Dekka," he said. "They took Caine out and haven't brought him back, yet."

Dekka's head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was being knocked out after they climbed down the ladder.

The pair heard footsteps thundering down the hallway. They were dragging something. Or someone.

"Toss him in there, with the other mutants," someone said outside Dekka's cell. The door clanked and open up, and a body was thrown in. The door was shut before Dekka could even see the man who was talking.

"It's Caine! He's alive!" Sam said as he knelt next to the body. There were bright red lashes down his back, most of which were still bleeding. Dekka heard him faintly whisper something.

"Shut up, he's trying to tell us something!" Dekka whispered to Sam. They leaned closer.

"Drake is with them," Caine said. Then he lost consciousness. Dekka must have passed out after that, also, because that's the last thing she remembered until the next day.

* * *

Astrid immediately got everyone into a huddle after Katie left to ask for permission. Astrid was almost 100% sure the CIA would say no.

"Okay, we need to make a plan now so we can leave as soon as possible," Astrid whispered to the circle of kids around her.

"Why are we whispering?" Quinn whispered back. Astrid ignored him.

"Jack, you were probably most likely to get a good look of the place. Here," Astrid whispered and handed Jack a piece of paper and a pen. "draw as much as you can remember."

"I'm not good at drawing," Jack whispered back.

"Just shut up and draw a freaking map," Lana snapped back. Jack grumbled and started drawing. It didn't take long for him to finish, because even he didn't get a good look of the place.

"What the heck is this?" Diana whispered, angrily pointing at some lines.

"It's supposed to be a door," Jack muttered.

"It looks like the freaking Big Dipper," Brianna said.

"Well, I'm not exactly Picasso-" Jack started to say. Astrid interrupted him.

"Shut up!" she yelled in a whisper voice. "Everyone else, add in other information. We all came down different hallways, so we should have an almost complete layout of the building."

Everyone else took turns drawing in their piece. Astrid added labels.

"So, we need to come up with a plan because it is very unlikely the CIA will agree to help us on a rescue mission," Astrid whispered once she was satisfied with the map. "I think I have an idea…"

Once the FAYZians finished coming up with their plan, Katie entered the room. Astrid decided she would trust Katie until given a reason not to. Just like innocent until proven guilty.

"Well, they didn't agree," Katie said. She rocked back and forth on her heels. "But, before we leave, we need to come up with a plan-" Brianna cut her off.

"Been there, done that," she said and held up the map. The kids had scribbled their ideas all over it. "Our first step is crawling outta here through the air vents, even if it's a little cliche."

Katie looked surprised, then smiled.

"Let's go, then," she said. The seven kids returned the smiled and silently cheered.


	15. Chapter 15

Jack knew what his role was. He didn't like it. It was impossible, it was too much to ask for, he was going to fail just like how he failed to keep the General trapped. And if Jack failed, the mission would fail.

Jack decided to not think of his inevitable failure. It was still a while away. Still a lot of things that could go wrong. A lot. Jack was pulled back to the present by Astrid's orders.

"Jack, open up the air duct," she said. Jack knew that "open up" actually meant rip the cover off so they could climb through. Jack complied, and soon the team of eight was crawling through a cramped air vent.

"Are you even sure this leads out? We have no idea where we're going," Jack whined after five minutes. He was starting to feel claustrophobic.

"No. I'm not. Anymore questions, Jack?" Astrid snapped. Jack decided to keep quiet. Everyone was on edge because of how uncomfortable it was.

Jack was last in the line of kids, with Katie right in front of him. He was extremely surprised Katie was serious about helping them. He thought it was just a trick of hers to get them all to trust her.

But she was here, crawling through a cobweb-filled air vent with them. Jack looked over Katie's head to see how Brianna was doing. She technically wasn't supposed to be moving at all, still. But Jack knew it was a longshot trying to get Brianna to stay put.

"Okay, turn here," Katie called ahead to Astrid. They turned and found themselves facing a wall. "The outside should be on the other side of this wall."

"Jack, you're up," Astrid said and motioned for everyone to move to the side. Jack squeezed past everyone to get to the wall. He started breaking a hole in it and sunlight streaked in.

"Nice, Katie. Weird, knowing the air vents, but nice," Quinn said. Katie laughed.

"Well, you never know when it might come in handy," she said. By then Jack had made a decent sized hole.

"Let's go," Edilio said. He gave one end of the rope to Jack and threw down the other. "Diana can go first."

"You better not drop me, Jack," Diana muttered as she made her way down the outside of the building.

"Jack, can more than one person go at once?" Astrid asked. Jack nodded, he felt like he was holding onto a laptop. He wished he was holding onto a laptop. Soon everyone except Jack was slowly making their way down the rope.

"We're down! Now your turn!" Astrid called up to him. Jack punched two holes through the side of the air vent and threaded the rope through, tying it. He then started his descent. Jack didn't really understand why they couldn't have done that from the beginning. He just knew Diana wouldn't because she was afraid of the "rope-breaking-while-they-climb-down cliché." They got Diana to agree by having Jack hold the rope, and then he could climb down with less of a worry because he was the smallest out of everyone else. Jack complained at first, saying it was pointless and the rope wouldn't break. He stopped when Lana started staring daggers at him.

"Okay, now what?" Jack said when he reached the ground. Astrid rolled her eyes.

"We've been through the plan a million times. Now we steal a car and drive to where Caine, Sam, and Dekka are," she said. She sounded exasperated. Jack decided to keep quiet, again. It took them a while to find a car with the keys in it. But even people in the CIA are irresponsible enough to leave keys in the ignition. The van they found had five seats, two in the front and three in the back, and its trunk was accessible from the back so it was safe to put someone there.

Edilio took the driver's seat, and Katie rode shotgun. Jack was unwillingly sharing the middle seat in the back with Brianna. Astrid and Diana were on either side of him, and Quinn and Lana were in the trunk.

"Comfortable?" Edilio asked as he started the engine.

"No," Jack said. Edilio smiled.

"Then let's go," he said and started driving. It was a 20 minute ride to where the General was. Jack didn't mention the fact that it was possible the General changed his location because he expected a rescue. Jack also didn't mention the fact that if the General didn't change his location, then it could very likely be a trap because he expected a rescue. Jack honestly hoped that it was the former.

"How much longer?" Brianna moaned.

"Ten more minutes," Katie said from the passenger seat. Brianna groaned.

"This is super uncomfortable! Half of me is sitting on the seat, and the other half is on Jack's bony leg!" she complained.

"My foot lost circulation a while ago," Jack mumbled. Diana rolled her eyes.

"Kids, stop complaining and enjoy the family road trip," she said. Quinn laughed from behind Jack.

Finally, they arrived at the place they planned to stop at. They pulled over the side of the highway and drove through the desert until they couldn't see the road. They were going to walk the rest of the way. As soon as the car stopped Brianna climbed over Astrid and bolted out of the car.

"Freedom!" she yelled as she ran in circles, kicking up dust behind her. The rest of the kids took their time leaving the van.

"Alrighty, let's start walking!" Brianna said when she finally came to a stop. She was beaming, happy to be outside running again.

"Jack, you and Brianna run ahead. Brianna will make sure everything goes as planned, and then she'll come back after you get… situated," Astrid said. Jack knew what situated meant. He knew Astrid knew he was scared to death at what he had to do, so she tried to not mention it. Jack nodded.

"Race you there!" Brianna yelled to Jack. He was about to say no thanks, but she was already gone. Jack sighed and started running towards where the building was supposed to be.

"Slow poke," Brianna said when Jack arrived. She had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot like she's been waiting for a long time.

"Brianna, how am I supposed to do this? The General won't believe me for a second," Jack said. Brianna uncrossed her arms and walked over to Jack. She put her hand on his arm.

"You'll do fine. You always do a great job, you just need more confidence. And if he doesn't believe you, punch him in the face and say it's from The Breeze," she said with her cocky grin. And then she was gone. Jack sighed and headed inside.

The soldiers scurrying around didn't notice Jack walking through the main entrance. Until Jack asked to see the General. Then they recognized him, grabbed him, dragged him into a room, and tied him to a chair. The General entered soon after.

"Well, well, well," he said. The General looked at the ropes around Jack's arms, wrists, and legs. "You don't need to pretend to be trapped, I know better than that."

Jack unbound himself from the chair and rubbed his wrists. "I want to make a deal with you," he said.

The General smirked. "Go on, humor me," he said.

"I will improve your Extractor; make it work better than Dr. Weigman ever could. But only if you don't hurt me or Brianna," Jack said. He hoped he managed to keep a poker face while the General studied him. Jack knew you were supposed to keep eye contact when you want someone to think you weren't lying, but Jack couldn't bring himself to look the General directly in the eyes.

"Hmm, I don't doubt he could make it better," the General muttered to himself. Jack stayed silent; he knew that it was a one in a million chance the General would believe him. "But why should I trust you?"

Jack sighed. Astrid told him exactly what to say to this question, although he didn't like it.

"You wouldn't know this, but in the FAYZ, I never stayed on one side for long. No one could fully trust me. I was used and got protection in return, and then I ran to the other side when it seemed better," he said. Even though that used to be true and it wasn't anymore, it still hurt Jack to say it. But the General seemed to be considering what he said. The General put a hand on Jack's shoulder, making him flinch. All Jack could think about was how scared he was at the moment.

"Hmm," the General said and let go of Jack. He started pacing and Jack held his breath.

"Alright, I agree. I won't hurt you or the fast girl, as long as you truly do make the Extractor better. But you also have to use it on your three friends. If you don't use it on them, they I will know that you were trying to trick me," the General said. Jack carefully hid his triumphant smile. Astrid predicted the General would make Jack use it on Caine, Sam, and Dekka. That was the main point of him pretending to help the General. Everything seemed to be going as planned, but Jack had a nagging feeling eating at the back of his mind that it was a trap.


	16. Chapter 16

Edilio was pacing, waiting for Brianna to return. Katie was looking at him with a concerned expression.

"You seem tense," she said with a small half smile. Edilio continued pacing. Katie stood up, which got everyone's attention.

"You guys are all too young to be suffering through this sort of stress. I mean, honestly, you just got out of something very close to what I would expect hell to be like. And you're still not allowed to go back to a normal life," she started ranting.

"We couldn't even go back to normal if we wanted to. You can't just get over what we witnessed in there," Diana said. Astrid frowned at her and motioned something. Diana shook her head and mouthed not yet. Edilio decided to just let that go.

"You should still be able to live peacefully, without having evil overlords capturing your friends," Katie said. Edilio shrugged.

Edilio felt a breeze and heard a familiar, cocky voice.

"Yo, I'm back!" Brianna said. "Jack's talking to the General right now. And I got us some food and water, too."

Brianna handed a water bottle and piece a fruit to everyone. Edilio didn't realize he was thirsty until seeing his bottle of water.

"Okay, now it's on to FAYZ 2 of the plan," Astrid said with a sly smile.

"And what is that, again, exactly?" Brianna asked. Astrid sighed and re-explained the plan. Brianna nodded once Astrid finished.

"I'm not feeling too good about this," Quinn said. "But it is brilliant!" he added after Astrid glared at him.

Edilio agreed, it was a brilliant plan. But there were many places it could go wrong.

"Here's your earpieces. It can pick up whispering, but only things you are saying. The only one who doesn't have an earpiece is Jack because the General would have noticed it," Astrid explained as she handed out small, high-tech earpieces to everyone. Edilio stuck his in his ear and heard a faint static sound when he turned it on.

"Okay, you all know the plan?" Astrid asked again. Brianna groaned dramatically.

"Yes, you explained it a bajillion times," she complained. Katie interuppted before Astrid could snap back at Brianna.

"Let me get these handcuffs on you three, then," she said. The three handcuffs in her hand clanked as she rocked them back and forth.

Since the General tried to make his "CIA" as much like the real CIA, he had the same uniforms and ID cards as the real one. Unfortunately for the General, Katie worked for the real CIA, and therefore had the same uniform and ID cards.

Once Katie had the three moofs handcuffed with their hands behind their back, the four of them started walking towards the General's location.

"Do you think it'll work? The plan, I mean," Edilio asked Astrid once he finished watching the four kids walk out of sight.

"Of course it will work, because I'm The Breeze," Edilio heard in his ear. He forgot about the earpieces, even though he just put it in.

"He was talking to Astrid, moron," Edilio heard Lana say.

"Stop fighting, children," an exasperated Diana said. Edilio felt weird, listening to their conversation without being around them. Like he was intruding on something private.

"And Edilio, I believe it could go either way. There are a lot of places it could go wrong, but you never know," Astrid said. She was hunched over the makeshift table Quinn had set up. What she was scribbling on that paper, Edilio didn't know. He didn't care to ask.

"We're at the front of the building, now," Edilio heard Katie say.

"Okay, now stop talking to us and I hope you're good at acting," Astrid said.

All Edilio could do was sit and wait.


	17. Chapter 17

Diana was extremely uncomfortable in this position. She was tied to Lana and Brianna while being half dragged through a building by Katie. It was even worse because Brianna was putting up a good show.

"You'll never get away with this!" Brianna dramatically yelled between struggling to break free. Which resulted in Diana being accidentally smacked in the face a few times.

I shouldn't be going through this, Diana thought. I should be in a safe hospitable bed, maybe getting my stomach scanned to see if it's a boy or a girl.

Diana was thankful her stomach didn't become big enough that you could tell. At least while she was wearing a shirt that was too big for her. But sooner or later, Diana realized she would have to tell everyone, because it was growing faster than normal.

"I shall see you all in court!" Brianna cried to the people unfortunate enough to be walking by her at that moment.

"Brianna, it's a little much," Diana heard Astrid's voice say through the earpiece. Brianna grumbled something along the lines of how no one let's her have any fun.

"Um, excuse me," Katie said to the old lady sitting at the front desk. Diana expected the lady to sound like the secretary lady from Monsters Inc. She had a name tag that read "Hello, my name is Ms. Stanton."

"ID card?" the Ms. Stanton said before even looking up. Katie held her breath and put her ID card on the desk. The secretary looked at it and frowned.

"Katie Kimmet. Never heard of you before," she said. Ms. Stanton scanned the card and the light on the scanner turned green. She shrugged.

"Well, I don't know everyone, I guess. What do you need?" she said. Katie let loose a quiet sigh of relief.

"Well, I was told to bring these three in. They're the last of the moofs that escaped a few days ago," Katie said. The lady raised her eyebrows and looked down at them. She chuckled.

"Great, the General will be pleased about this," she started typing until she looked like she found what she needed. "Bring them to cell N-108, then check on the others. The first three are in cell J-105. Also, there's a girl in cell F-103. And, did you hear about one of these Anomaly kids that claimed he would help the General? He's in cell C-101, and I think it's all a big lie..."

Diana stopped listening to the old lady's gossip because she just processed what Ms. Stanton had said.

A girl in cell F-103.

It was someone else from the FAYZ who got caught. It could be Taylor, Sinder, Penny, Emily, or someone else Diana could have forgotten about. She glanced at Lana and Brianna, and they shared the same equally shocked expression Diana had.

"And try to stay away from Mr. Merwin's room. We tell him not to whip his fellow employees, but he doesn't always listen," the lady added.

Diana almost fainted. Brianna "silently" cursed, which caused several heads to turn towards them. Lana elbowed Brianna, then swore under her breath herself. Katie continued her act of being an employee of the fake CIA fairly well, which Diana was thankful for. She didn't want to get caught for real. Especially since she knew who was working for the General, now.

Katie continued to drag the three girls to the cell they were designated. She unlocked the door and gently pushed them in.

"I'm going to check on the others, explain what's going on," Katie whispered, then walked out the door. Brianna lost it immediately.

"Drake is here!" Brianna yelled. Diana couldn't tell if she was happy or scared. Maybe both. "I am SO going to slice him up this time! He doesn't even stand a chance!"

"Brianna, remember the mission. Don't let your need to kill Drake ruin the mission," Astrid said through the earpiece. Brianna looked crestfallen.

"I know," she muttered. "But if the opportunity arises…"

"Then feel free to rid this messed up world of Drake," Astrid finished. Brianna smiled.

"With pleasure," she said.

* * *

Dekka was not enjoying her stay. Neither was Sam or Caine. Once a day, the three of them would be dragged out so Drake could have his fun. There was already three casualties. Three different agents tried to interfere to prevent Drake from killing Sam, once. It was the last mistake they ever made.

At least Sam survived.

Dekka was awoken by a knock on their cell door. She realized she was laying with Caine and Sam on the floor. She immediately jumped up and threw up in her mouth a little. The door opened, and in walked a girl Dekka had never seen before.

She had red hair pulled back into a high ponytail. Her skin was very pale and had freckles across the bridge of her nose. She had bright green eyes and smiled at Dekka.

"I'm Katie, and I'm helping your friends rescue you," she whispered. Dekka stared at her with her mouth open. Katie looked down at the two boys sleeping next to each other on the floor. Dekka saw her try to hide a smile.

"That's cute," Katie said. "But we better wake them up."

Dekka gently poked Sam in the back and not-so-gently kicked Caine in the stomach. Caine woke up with a groan.

"What was that for?" he said to Dekka. Sam laughed.

"Katie here says that our friends are rescuing us," Dekka said. Caine and Sam both looked Katie over.

"So, are we leaving right now?" Caine asked. Katie snorted.

"Don't be silly. Wouldn't you think they would notice you three walking out the door?" Katie said. Dekka wanted to warn her to not poke fun at Caine.

Katie continued. "Astrid planned this big elaborate scheme. And I just wanted to give you a heads up before you waltzed into the Extractor room and saw Jack working it. I didn't want you to assume he betrayed you… again. Now, I need to check on Jack and the other girl. I'll be seeing you again, soon."

Then she smiled and walked out the door, leaving Caine, Sam, and Dekka staring open-mouthed at where she used to be with a small flicker of hope.

* * *

Drake loved his new job. His job was torturing people. Torturing Caine, Sam, and Dekka to be specific. And he didn't have to go to college or anything stupid like that for it. All he did was drive until he ran into a building. Drake would have literally ran into this building if he was certain he was still immortal. But he wasn't.

Drake had swaggered through the front door, snapping his whip at everyone within a 10 feet radius of him. Then the General walked up to him and smiled. That had made Drake falter, because it seemed like the fancy big-time military dude was expecting him. Drake had shrugged that off and agreed right away when the General offered to let Drake whip any Perdido Beach Anomaly kids that he caught.

Drake would have squealed in joy if he was a girl when he found out Diana, Brianna, Lana, and Jack would caught. The General disappointed Drake a little bit by saying Jack was on their side and therefore Drake couldn't whip him. Drake never followed the rules, though. He would still whip Jack when the time came.

Drake was pacing in his room, waiting for the General or some quivering intern to tell him it was time to torture. It was 2:00pm, the time he usually whipped Caine, Sam, or Dekka. Except now Drake would get to choose between six people. He couldn't decide if he wanted to whip Brianna or Diana first. He hated them both so much. It was a very tough choice.

Drake stopped pacing to look at his clock. 2:15pm. He snarled and twitched his whip. If an intern walked through that door, there was going to be a casualty. He deserved it, for making Drake wait so long.

2:30pm. Drake was growing restless. Five minutes later, he decided he wouldn't wait any longer. He broke the door knob off and walked into the hallway.


	18. Chapter 18

Jack was working on the Extractor in his room. The General didn't trust him completely, so he locked Jack up with the machine instead of letting him work in the Extractor room. Or the lab. Jack was a little disappointed, because he figures there would be all kinds of high-tech gear in the lab. Like everything from the Spy Kids movies. Jack could have stolen so much advanced gear he wouldn't even have to use his power. Which is probably why the General didn't let him go in there.

Jack heard a knock on the door that made him jump. Usually the General or someone the General sent to get him didn't knock, they just barged in, hopeful to catch him doing something he wasn't supposed to.

"Um, come in?" Jack said. The door opened and Katie walked in. Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, you convinced him?" Katie said. Jack nodded.

"Good, Astrid's glad. I would put her in your ear but it might break your eardrums. She really didn't have a whole lot of faith in you," Katie added. Jack shrugged, he didn't have a whole lot of faith in himself.

"Is everyone else okay?" he asked while working on the Extractor.

"Yeah, I checked on them. Except there's one more person I need to check on, a mystery girl that wasn't with us before," Katie said. Jack stopped working and turned around.

"A girl who's a moof?" he said to himself. "It could be Taylor, Penny, Sinder, Emily, or Jill."

Jack saw Katie nodding to pretend she understood, so he added, "Taylor can teleport, Penny can make you see visions, Sinder can make plants grow, Emily can change the surroundings around you or something like that, and Jill can make everyone stop what they're doing by singing."

"Ah, yes," Katie said. "Well, I better go see who it is. Good luck with what you have to do next."

"Bye," Jack said as she left. He was sad that she was going, he didn't like being all alone. And he wished he could of had an earpiece, but the General would have noticed it.

Jack went back to work on the Extractor, until realizing he was done. The Extractor was fixed. Any minute now the General would come in and take him to the Extractor room. Jack resisted the urge to smash it against the wall. He couldn't fail the plan, not when everyone was so close to escaping.

Sure enough, two agents walked in and asked if Jack was finished yet. Jack gulped and nodded his head. Jack watched as they struggled to lift up the Extractor. He wouldn't offer to help, maybe they would accidently drop it. But then it would take that much longer for Brianna and the others to get out of here. Jack still didn't offer to help the agents carry the Extractor as they walked to the Extractor room, it was fun to watch.

* * *

Sam was sitting against the wall on the floor when an agent burst through the door.

"Your appointments with the Extractor has been rescheduled. It's now," he said with a grin. Caine stared at him.

"Only one? Sir, we are highly dangerous juveniles, it says so on our cards. It literally says 'Highly Dangerous Juvenile.' And I'm pretty sure if you scan the barcode, it says 'Shoot first, think later.' So I demand to have more than one scrawny agent carry me to my death," he said. Dekka and Sam almost smiled. The man stared at Caine and held up a strange material.

"I'm pretty sure once I wrap your hands in this you will just be a juvenile," he sneered. Caine stared daggers at him as the agent wrapped all three pairs of hands in the material. Then the agent started prodding them out the door through the hallway. Sam saw the agent was wearing a watch. It was 2:15pm.

* * *

Lana was sulking in her cell when the agents came to get them. That wasn't supposed to happen yet. Katie was supposed to check back first.

"Astrid, agents are here and Katie hasn't checked back," Lana whispered as quietly as she could. Lana heard Astrid curse.

"Just go along with it, only a minor setback," Astrid said.

"Sorry, I'm checking on who the other girl is right now," Lana heard Katie say. "They're a bit early, aren't they?"

"Yeah, a bit early," Lana whispered with a frown.

"Let's go, girls," the man who entered their room said with a sneer. "Time to give your powers away."

Brianna looked like she was about to start a fight, so Lana elbowed her. They were supposed to come quietly. Brianna stuck out her lower lip to make a pouting face at Lana. Lana rolled her eyes.

"Come on now, get a move on. Don't make me start to use force to get you there," the agent said. The three girls stood up and started walking to the Extractor room.

Caine, Sam, and Dekka were already there.

"How's it been?" Sam asked when the three girls walked in. That earned him a knee in the stomach from the man holding onto him.

Lana looked around and saw Jack quivering by the computers. He tried not to make eye contact with any of them.

It didn't take long for the General to walk in. He was wearing an outfit similar to what the Men In Black would wear; a black suit and sunglasses.

What surprised Lana was Dr. Weigman, who was stumbling along behind the General. She glanced at Jack, who had somehow gone paler than he already was.

"Tie him up," the General said to some of his employees. They nodded and headed over towards Jack.

"Um, what?" Jack said, slowly backing up. The General laughed.

"Did you honestly think I believed you?" he said. "I just decided to use you to make the Extractor better. And now you can be the first to test it out. I'm sure Cameron, no matter how incompetent he is, can figure out how to work your Extractor. Oh, and I hope you're smart enough to know that if you struggle, the agent holding the fast girl has a knife he would use without hesitation."

"My name is Carter, and no offence taken," Dr. Weigman said. The General stared at him with a look that said that-was-meant-to-be-offensive-you-imbecile.

Jack looked over towards Brianna, noticing that the person holding her was showing off a knife while he smiled. Jack sagged his shoulders and walked over to the chair himself.

"It's a trap," Lana whispered as quietly as she could. Astrid, Edilio, and Quinn started yelling profanity.

"Oh, and Dr. Wideman, the first thing I would do is disconnect their earpieces," the General said and locked eyes with Lana.

"Weigman. And I'm on it!" Dr. Weigman squealed giddily. He started typing on the computer and soon all Lana could hear was static.

"Good, now start the Extractor," the General barked. Dr. Weigman was about to until Brianna interrupted.

"Wait!" she cried. Everyone in the room turned to her with shocked expressions. Brianna put on an innocent smile. "Aren't you going to explain your evil plan to us? All the good villains do that, you know."

The General narrowed his eyes. "Don't think you can easily trick me into stalling, _The Breeze._ I do not fall for stupid tricks. You don't even know who I am. And once I get all of your powers and transfer them into my soldiers, I'll be able to take over. So no, i'm not falling for your tricks."

"Well, I beg to differ, but it seems like you kinda just did," a voice said from behind them. Lana whipped around and saw Katie, with Taylor behind her.

Taylor started bouncing behind each moof, unbinding their hands then bouncing away again. Jack jumped from his chair and ran to the computers, shoving Dr. Weigman out of the way. He started typing until Lana heard the static stop and Astrid started screaming in her earpiece again.

"We have to go, now! Forget the plan! Just sprint out as fast as possible! Drake is free!" Astrid yelled.

The kids bolted for the door and were halfway out of the building before things started to get worse.


	19. Chapter 19

The General watched the kids run towards the door.

"What are our orders, sir?" one of his agents asked him.

"Separate them," the General said. Then he aimed his gun at the slowest girl's leg and fired.

* * *

Dekka was the last one through the door. Or at least she would have been if she wasn't shot in her thigh. Dekka screamed and fell down.

"Help!" she screamed. Jack was the only one who heard her and quickly ran back to her.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked worriedly.

"My thigh. Now hurry up and pick me up, they're coming!" Dekka said through gritted teeth. Jack carefully scooped her up and started running back out the door.

Suddenly, Brianna was there.

"Are you okay, Dekka!" she cried. Dekka nodded.

"Keep running, Breeze," she said. Brianna shook her head.

"I'm going to stay with you like how you stayed with me," she said, which made Dekka smile.

Jack continued running, following far behind the others. Brianna trotted beside them. Soon they reached a fork in the hallway. Everyone in front of the three of them turned left. But before Jack could catch up, agents blocked the left. Jack, Brianna, and Dekka had no choice but to run to the right.

"It's a dead end!" Dekka cried out. Jack stopped running and gently put Dekka down. He started breaking an opening through the wall. Sunlight streaked in.

"Brianna, trip the people that are coming or something!" Dekka yelled. Brianna nodded and disappeared in a breeze. The men that were racing towards the three kids found themselves sprawled across the floor after tripping over a foot that seemed to appear out of nowhere, and then were punched several times before they could process what happened. Brianna appeared next to Dekka again.

"Okay, let's go. We'll catch up with the others later," Jack said and picked Dekka back up. He accidently touched her bullet wound, making Dekka flinch. "Sorry."

Jack started running in his weird way after that, with Brianna only having to slow down a little.

* * *

Drake heard a commotion going on.

_My little playmates must have escaped,_ he thought to himself. He decided he would wait for them. Wait right where they were heading.

* * *

Sam was sprinting down the hallway, not knowing where the others were. He was in front of everyone else. Soon he burst through the front door and saw a car racing towards the building. Sam hoped it was Astrid, Quinn, and Edilio.

Sam glanced behind him. The agents were still in pursuit of him, and there was no sign of the other kids. Sam cursed. The car pulled up next to him and Quinn threw open the back door.

"Get in!" Quinn said. Sam hesitated at first, looking back at the front door.

"We'll keep circling the building for the rest, but get in Sam!" Astrid screamed. Sam complied and the car started driving before the door was shut.

They would have circled the building to wait for the others, if the fleet of army trucks didn't start chasing them. Edilio, who was driving, muttered some rude words aimed towards whoever was driving those army trucks.

"We have to go, Sam. The others will be fine. If we don't go we'll die," Edilio said. Sam gritted his teeth.

"We'll find them again as soon as possible," Sam said. Edilio sharply turned away from the building, causing Sam to crash against Quinn.

"Well, I guess it's us four again, for now," Quinn said once they left the other trucks in the dust. Then they drove in silence until they stopped at an abandoned barn.

* * *

Taylor was running besides Katie. She couldn't teleport away because the agents had had her blindfolded when they dragged her in. She tried teleporting back to the DeSales island, but it seemed she could only teleport within a certain radius. So she was stuck in her cell until Katie rescued her.

Taylor glanced behind her and saw Caine, Diana, and Lana. She saw no sign of Jack, Dekka, and Brianna, they must have lost them at the fork.

Taylor could no longer see Sam ahead of her. She was too busy gaping at who had blocked them from sprinting outside. Drake. They turned around, only to realize the five of them were surrounded with agents aiming guns at them.

"Long time no see, Diana, Lana, and Taylor," Drake said while smiling a shark grin. He looked at Katie. "Who are you?"

"Um-" Katie started. Drake interrupted.

"Nevermind, I don't care. Just more people to whip, in my opinion," he said. His whip twitched as he started walking in circles around them. Like a hawk circling a mouse.

Taylor noticed a fire alarm behind Drake. Taylor bounced there, pulled the fire alarm, and bounced back to where she was before Drake noticed. The alarm started blaring and a bright red light flashed. It caught all the agents by surprised, allowing the five kids to run out the door. Caine telepathically chucked Drake against the wall for good measure.

The five kids got into the first car with a key they could find. Then they drove off, not knowing where the other seven went.

"We'll go back to find them," Katie said. Lana nodded her head.

"I hope they're all okay," she said. Taylor smirked.

"Worried about Quinn?" she said. That earned her a elbow to the ribs from Lana.

"Stop fighting. I- I have something important to say," Diana said. "I'm… I'm going to have a… baby."

It took a while for the kids in the car to process that.


	20. Chapter 20

Brianna and Jack ran until they were out of breath.

Actually until Jack was out of breath, Brianna thought. The Breeze never gets tired.

The sun was setting by the time the three kids set up a makeshift camp. They were in the middle of the desert with limited supplies. Astrid didn't plan on them getting separated, so they didn't have any tents, extra water and food, or extra clothes. All they had where two half-full water bottles, what they were wearing, and two apples. Jack laid the food and water out on a large rock.

"We'll need to ration this out, and look for the highway," he said. Jack shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted towards the setting sun. "So that way is west, which means the General is to the south, since the sun was to the left of use while we were running. The highway runs to the northwest, so…"

Brianna groaned and stopped listening to Jack who kept rambling on. She walked over to where Dekka was laying.

"Does it hurt? Are you okay?" Brianna asked, until realizing Dekka was unconscious. She checked on Dekka's thigh and saw that it was still bleeding. Brianna cursed, furious at herself for not wrapping it sooner.

"Jack! Give me your shirt!" Brianna yelled. Jack stopped talking about the cardinal directions or cardinals the bird, Brianna wasn't listening, and stared at her.

"Why?" he asked with a look of complete shock on his face. Brianna rolled her eyes.

"Because I want to see you shirtless," she said with heavy sarcasm. Jack's mouth went wide open. He obviously didn't catch the sarcasm.

"No, you idiot, Dekka's still bleeding!" she snapped. Jack still just stood there and stared at Brianna like she's gone mad. Brianna didn't feel like waiting for him, so before Jack could blink she ran over to him, ripped his shirt off, and was wrapping it around Dekka's thigh.

"What the!" Jack cried, surprised to find his shirt around Dekka's leg. "Now I'm cold!"

"Well, that's a minor discomfort compared to bleeding to death," Brianna shot back. Jack looked a little ashamed, so Brianna sighed and patted the ground next to her. Jack walked over and sat down.

"What now?" he asked.

"Sleep," Brianna said. Jack started looking around at the ground.

"I swear to God, if you say you don't want your bony chest to get all dirty, I will slap you so many times that every inch of your has-never-seen-the-sun skin will turn red," Brianna said through gritted teeth. Jack blushed. Brianna started laughing, surprising herself.

"Erm, you can sleep first. I'll take first watch," Jack said. Brianna was about to protest, until realizing she was tired.

I guess The Breeze is allowed to take some breaks, Brianna thought as she laid down and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Do you think anyone lives here?" Quinn asked after the four kids got out of the car and stared up at the large barn they spotted.

"If someone does, they better be okay with some guests," Sam said and started walking in. Edilio followed Sam, with Astrid and Quinn in tow. Before Edilio entered, he took one last look outside, wondering where everyone else ended up. The sun was already setting.

"Hello?" Sam called out. He lit a few Sammy Suns and they floated up to the ceiling, casting an eerie light.

"If it's okay with anyone who's here, me and my friends are gonna sleep here. And we may or may not borrow a few supplies. Technically all of the useful supplies we can find. But we're not robbers," Sam continued saying into the empty barn.

"I don't think there's anyone here," Astrid said.

"Well, let's start ransacking this place," Quinn said as he headed off to open a pile of crates. It was an unusually large barn. It probably wasn't a barn, more like a warehouse that looked like it was a barn on the outside. There was no hay on the floor, just concrete. And instead of animals or farming equipment, there were crates.

"I'll grab the food and water in the car," Edilio said and he headed back outside.

The sun had set fast, and he could see the stars start to come out already. He heard a rustling in the leaves behind some bushes. Edilio unconsciously grabbed for his gun he used to have slung over his shoulder, until remembering he wasn't in the FAYZ anymore and didn't carry around a gun. The rustling got louder, and a squirrel emerged and scurried away. Edilio breathed a sigh of relief.

He continued walking to the car and opened the door. It didn't take him very long to gather all the important materials; there wasn't a lot. Edilio wished they had planned more just in case something went wrong. He noticed all the tech stuff Jack insisted on bringing. Edilio figured it could have been useful, if Jack was with them. He shrugged and grabbed the wires and the whatever-you-call-thems. Maybe Astrid could figure out something to do with them.

Edilio walked back to the barn/warehouse, carrying five water bottles, a bag of apples, and a lot of technology that was most likely useless to them. He really hoped there was useful stuff in those crates.


	21. Chapter 21

"Um, congratulations?" Katie said to break the silence. She felt very awkward. Caine's face was unreadable. Diana stared at her.

"Why thank you. That is something I should be congratulated on, after all; becoming pregnant at 15," she said sarcastically. Katie mumbled sorry.

"Let's change the subject," Diana said.

"Or we could just ride in silence-" Lana said but was interrupted by Taylor.

"OMG, guys, we like, have no food. And there's a pregnant lady on here, and don't pregnant people need a lot of food? And also, I seem to only be able to bounce a certain distance, but whatever. Where's Sam? I hope we find the others before we all die! Hey, look, there's a gas station over there! Let's get some food and clothes, I hope they have cute clothes. But it's a gas station, so probably not," she said in one breath.

"Or not," Lana muttered as Caine pulled the car over into the gas station parking lot.

"Won't they wonder why five unsupervised kids comes wandering in there? It's practically a gas station in the middle of nowhere- oh, and there's a flickering light. Fantastic," Katie said as she got out of the car.

"I think a haunted gas station is the least of our worries," Diana said. Katie assumed she was talking about the whole wanted-by-an-evil-power-hungry-general-separated-from-your-friends situation. But she noticed Diana was holding her stomach and looking at Caine, who hadn't said a word yet.

"Sooo, I guess I'll go first," Katie said. She looked at her companies, took one step, looked at them again, then sighed and started walking in. All the lights were on, although one was flickering.

Flickering lights is the first sign to get the heck out of somewhere, Katie thought to herself. But she continued into the gas station, with everyone else close behind her.

"Erm, hello?" she called out. No answer. "So, if this place is abandoned, can my friends and I, er, borrow some stuff without any intentions of returning it? If we are, say nothing."

Katie didn't hear anything, so she shrugged and bolted to the nearest shelf with chocolate candy bars on it.

"Oh my God, this tastes amazing," she said while eating a Kit Kat. Taylor started squealing in glee as she bounced from aisle to aisle, grabbing food and clothes.

For a gas station, it had a decent selection of clothes. Katie grabbed a tank top and shorts, and ran to the bathroom to change out of her work uniform.

When everyone was changed and full, they started planning what on Earth they would do next.

"We need to find the others, immediately," Lana said. Katie nodded her head in agreement.

"What do you think, Caine?" she asked, looking over at him. He was looking at Diana. Katie noticed for the first time how much her stomach had grown. Before she was wearing a T-shirt several sizes to large. Caine shrugged.

"I think we should get Diana to a hospitable," he said. Diana looked at him. Katie tried to understand what was going on between them, but their faces were unreadable. She couldn't tell if they were having a silent argument or a silent love-fest. Or if they were even looking at each other. For all Katie knew, Diana could have been intently staring at the sales rack behind Caine.

"We're going to go searching for the others. Tomorrow," Diana said once she looked away from Caine. Katie didn't notice the sun was already setting.

"What, so we're going to just aimlessly drive around until we run out of gas?" Taylor whined.

"Yes. We are," Lana said as she got up and grabbed a blanket. "Now, I'm going to bed in that corner. No one bother me."

"Good night," Katie called to her. Lana ignored her.

"I'll take first watch," Caine said. "Everyone else, sleep."

"I'll take second watch, then," Lana called out from her corner. Caine grunted in agreement.

Katie grabbed about ten blankets and made a fort. Diana saw her and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, can I sleep in there with you? It looks a lot comfier than sleeping in a corner," Taylor whispered. Katie nodded. Taylor curled up in a pile of blankets and quickly fell asleep. Katie couldn't seem to get her eyes closed. Then she heard Caine and Diana start to have a conversation.

"What do you think. About the baby?" Diana whispered. Katie desperately tried to block out their conversation. It sounded private.

"I don't know," Caine whispered.

"It has a power. It's already a three bar."

"What do you think the power is? Both of ours combined?"

"I don't know, Caine. I don't even think we will live through delivering it."

Katie didn't want to hear anymore. She was intruding on their conversation. But she was forced to hear more.

"We..?" Caine whispered.

"You must not have noticed that I'm not in the best of shape. It's hard enough for a normal 15 year old to give birth."

"That's why I wanted you taken to the hospitable."

"Yeah, where the General could easily find me. And it's not like we have insurance. Or parents/guardians."

"The hospitable would still take you in…"

"Well, I'm not going. As long as Lana's with me when it… starts… I'll probably be fine."

"You don't believe that, do you."

"No."

They were quiet for a while after that. Katie prayed to the Lord of sleep or whatever to knock her out. She didn't want to invade their privacy anymore.

"What should we name it?" Caine whispered after a while.

"I don't know. I don't know if it's a boy or a girl."

"Well, we could know if you just went to the hospitable…"

"Caine, give it a rest. I hope it's a girl, though."

"I think I would want a boy."

"Well, I hope you know we wouldn't name him Caine Soren the Second."

Caine snorted, which caused Taylor to mutter in her sleep.

"You better go to bed, Diana," Caine whispered. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night," Diana said. Katie heard her shuffle away and lay down on a blanket. Finally, Katie started to drift off to sleep, herself.

* * *

Jack sat shivering on the ground. He knew that nights in the desert could get very cold, since there was nothing the hold the heat. Already the ground was starting to feel ice cold. He scooted closer to Brianna. He could tell she was cold, too.

Jack sighed. He didn't think anyone would be wandering the desert at night, so they didn't need someone to stay watch. But Jack doubted he could fall asleep, anyways. He looked up at the sky. There were more stars than Jack had ever seen before in his life. Of course, he played around with Google Earth a bit, and looked at the constellations. But it was way better in real life.

Jack picked up Brianna's earpiece. He had already tested it out a few times, trying to get it to work. But he couldn't figure out how. Most likely out of range.

Dekka grunted, making Jack flinch. He saw her eyes open.

"Hi," Jack whispered. Dekka looked confused, probably wondering why Jack's shirt was wrapped around her leg. She slowly sat up.

"How long was I unconscious?" she whispered. Jack shrugged.

"How long have you been keeping watch?" she asked. Jack shrugged again. Dekka rolled her eyes.

"You're very helpful, Jack," she whispered sarcastically. "You can sleep, now. I'll keep watch."

"I don't think I can. I'm too cold," Jack said.

"And I'm not very tired," he added, which was a lie. Jack was exhausted. Dekka snorted.

"Sure," she said while watching Jack stifle a yawn.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked.

"Kinda. It feels cold," she replied.

"Well, you did lose a little blood. And it's cold outside and all we're wearing are shorts and t-shirts," Jack started to explain. He yawned again.

"Go to bed, Jack," Dekka ordered. Jack looked like he was about to argue, but his eyes dropped.

"Alright," he said as he laid backwards and fell asleep right away.


	22. Chapter 22

"Find anything good?" Edilio asked as he walked in, causing Astrid to jump.

"Kind of. Most of these crates are filled with tech stuff or rotten food," Sam said. He picked up a loaf of moldy bread and dropped it, disgusted. Astrid was sitting indian-style trying to get a radio of some sorts to work.

"What's the haul from the truck?" Quinn asked while he searched through a large box.

"Some apples, water, and tech stuff," Edilio said. He tossed an apple and a water bottle to each of the three kids. Then he walked over to Astrid, handed her the technology from the car, and leaned against the wall folding his arms.

"What're you trying to do?" he asked. Astrid shrugged.

"I don't know. Anything, to be honest," she said. "I think this is the type of radio that we can talk to people through. Like what semi-truck drivers use."

"I don't think our friends have CB radios in their pockets," Quinn said distractedly as he was untangling some wires. Astrid sighed.

"You do realize we aren't the only ones that were in the FAYZ, right?" she said. "I think we should get in contact with Sanit, Howard, Orc, Dahra, Albert, and the others."

Sam looked up. "You think we can contact them with a CB radio?"

"Obviously not! Or at least not until we find Jack. But I can't just sit around here doing nothing," Astrid snapped.

"I like the idea. It's like in Potterwatch from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Edilio said with a grin. Astrid snorted.

"Yeah, exactly like that," she said sarcastically. Astrid sighed and stopped fiddling with the radio. She stood up and dusted herself off, and headed over to the last two unopened crates.

"Two left. Sam, you choose first," she said. Sam pointed to the one on the right.

"Alright, let's cross our fingers and hope for something good," she said. Quinn and Edilio pried the top off, and Sam was the first to look inside. He wrinkled his nose.

"Junk?" Astrid asked. Sam nodded.

"It's just more rotten food," he said. Astrid frowned.

"It's like whoever owned this place planned to use it as a safe house during an apocalypse. There's CB radios, food, a door with an abnormal amount of locks on it, it's in the middle of nowhere," she said. "I wonder what's in the last crate…"

Astrid trailed off, looking towards the last box. It became very ominous.

"Let's find out. Wouldn't it be great if it was filled with Nutella or Pepsi?" Quinn said as the three boys headed towards the crate.

"Or M3-MAAWS," Sam said with a half smile. They quickly opened the crate and looked in as soon as the top was off. They looked disappointed.

"More freaking rotten food," Sam said disgustedly.

"These people don't know that you're supposed to pack non-perishable foods in a safe house," Quinn said. Then he kicked the crate in anger, causing him to curse after stubbing his toe.

"We better get to sleep," Edilio said. Then he and Sam both said "I'll take first watch," at the same time.

"Why don't I take first watch, then," Astrid said. She wasn't tired anyways. Sam and Edilio protested until Astrid gave them a stern look.

"Yes, mother," Sam said as he laid down. The other two boys laid down as well, and soon they were peacefully snoring.

Until after a few hours, when Astrid heard footsteps and talking right outside the door.

* * *

"Look! There's a house!" Taylor squealed. The five kids were driving down an empty highway, trying to find some sort of town or anything. They had left as soon as they had practically stuffed half of the store into the trunk. Caine didn't feel one bit bad about robbing that place. It was either shut down or run by a moron who doesn't know what a key does. And they had a good reason; Diana needed all the food she could get.

Caine looked in the rearview mirror at her. It looked like she was around five months pregnant, already. Even though it has barely been a month. Diana noticed him looking so he quickly averted his eyes.

"Pull over at that house!" Taylor cried. Caine groaned.

"Alright, I am. Shut up now, will you?" he said. The house was very small and beaten, and there were no other buildings in sight. The five kids walked up to the front door and knocked. A little girl answered the door. She had wavy brown hair that went all the way to her butt and big brown eyes.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Lily."

"Hi, Lily," Katie said in the same voice you would talk to a baby with. "Are your parents home?"

"No, Mommy hasn't been home in a week and Daddy is still at his work and he works for the army and when one of Daddy's work friends came to visit us one day, he talked to Mommy and she started crying and then Mommy lost her job and we had to move away from our old town and then Mommy told me she was going to the grocery store. I asked her to buy Cheerios, but she isn't back yet," Lily said in one breath. The five of them looked at each other with their mouths open.

"My big brother is here, though. Mommy left him in charge. He's a big boy now, because he's 13. I'm a big girl, too. I'm six and a half years old. But Mommy said Leo is in charge because he's older. I'll show you to him. He likes playing in his room," Lily said and started skipping into the house. Caine looked at Diana and shrugged as he followed the little girl.

Lily knocked on a door with a sign that said 'KNOCK FIRST' in big, bold letters.

"Leo doesn't like it when people don't knock," Lily said. "He says, 'Lily, you have to knock, okay?'"

Caine heard footsteps and the door knob began to turn. An average height boy with the same big, brown eyes and wavy brown hair as his sister was standing in the doorway. His hair reached his eyebrows. For a second he stood in shock, looking at the strangers who had entered his house.

"Hello, strangers," he said after he put on a smile. Then he turned to Lily.

"What did I say about strangers?" he said slowly while still smiling. Lily beamed at him.

"Stranger danger. And it rhymes!" she said enthusiastically. "But I don't think they're danger. They are nice."

Caine snorted, which cause Leo to look at him suspiciously. Then the boy's eyes widened and he gasped.

"I've seen you guys on the news!" he said while pointing at them all. "You're some of the Perdido Beach Anomaly kids!"

"Yes, yes we are. Now, can you explain what you're sister here said about you two living on your own for a week?" Lana said. Leo glanced at his sister, who was humming and twirling in a circle, and groaned.

"Our dad died in the war, and our mom kind of lost it after that. She started stealing and stuff, so she made us quit school and move out here so she wouldn't get caught. Then one day she just left. Said she was going to the grocery store. It was a week ago, and social services or whatever didn't take us away because they don't know she's gone. And I didn't want to be taken away, either," Leo explained. They were all quiet after that.

"How do you get your food?" Katie asked. Leo grinned.

"There's an abandoned gas station a little ways down. I get all our food from there," he said. "Now, before I grant you permission of staying in Leo's Castle, I want you to tell me all about the FAYZ! And why you're on the run! And demonstrate your powers! Or is that just a rumor?"

Before any of them could speak, Lily fell and hit her head on the corner of the door. She started crying. Lana walked over to her and placed a hand on Lily's forehead, where it was bleeding.

"No, it's not a rumor," Lana said. She removed her hands and it looked as if nothing had happened. Lily stopped crying and Leo was staring at them in awe.

"That. Is. Amazing!" he yelled.

"You don't want to know about the FAYZ, though. And we aren't going to tell you, either," Caine said seriously. Leo looked a little disappointed, but then started smiling again. He looked at them all more carefully.

"Are you pregnant?" he blurted out to Diana. Taylor snorted.

"You aren't supposed to ask a girl that. But yes, I am," Diana huffed.

"Let's go in the living room so you guys can tell me everything that has happened since you left the FAYZ," Leo said and ran down the stairs, jumping the last four. He landed wrong and fell on his face, but he sprang up and yelled "I'm good!" and continued running into the living room. Taylor bounced down the stairs as the rest of them followed with Lily close behind, humming a song.


	23. Chapter 23

Brianna woke up, confused by her surroundings at first. Then she remembered where she was. She looked over at Jack and Dekka. Jack's cheeks puffed out like a baby's as he slept. Dekka was sitting, staring off into nowhere and occasionally trying to move her leg without grimacing.

"Good morning," Brianna said, startling Dekka.

"How did you sleep?" Dekka asked. Brianna shrugged.

"Is your leg getting any better?" she asked. Dekka didn't answer. Brianna took that as a no.

"Huh? What? I'm awake!" Jack cried suddenly and sat up, his eyes still closed and his glasses dangling on one ear. He opened his eyes and was in the process of straightening his glasses when he froze suddenly.

"Do you hear that?" he whispered. Brianna and Dekka both shook their heads. Then Jack shushed them even though they weren't talking.

"It sounds like… beeping. From a tiny GPS…" Jack trailed off and looked wildly at Brianna. Brianna strained her ears and she heard a faint beeping noise. Jack suddenly sprang up and tackled Brianna, searching all over her shirt.

"What! OW! GET OFF ME, JACK!" Brianna yelled. Finally, Jack yelled triumphantly and held up a tiny, black thing that Brianna thought was some ball of black thread or something. Brianna shoved Jack off.

"It's a tracking device!" Jack exclaimed.

"Why are you smiling!" Dekka yelled at him. "That means the General knows where we are!"

"No, don't you see! We can just simply take them off our clothes and leave them here! And, it means all of our friends have one, too, right? Well, once I get a computer I can hack into the General's database and track them down!" Jack cried, grinning in pure joy. Dekka shook her head.

"What if the General gets them or us first?" she said. Jack's smile faltered.

"Well, we should take them off our clothes first. And Brianna can drop them a few miles away," he said. "I'll need to have my shirt back."

Brianna jumped up and quickly unwrapped Dekka's leg, so fast she didn't register the pain. She tossed the shirt to Jack and started searching Dekka's shirt.

"Look on the back where the agents pushed us," Jack said. "That's where I found yours."

It didn't take long until Brianna was holding three tiny tracking devices. She bolted away, placed them on the ground, and sprinted back to Jack and Dekka. Dekka looked like she was about to vomit all over the place, but Jack didn't noticed because he was too busy exalting over the idea that they would find Sam and the others, again.

"What's wrong, Dekka?" Brianna asked. Jack looked around and Dekka, suddenly aware that she didn't look too good.

"The bullets were poisoned, remember?" Dekka said. Brianna cursed.

"How bad is it?" Jack asked, kneeling down next to Dekka. "Wait, this poison is turning the veins orange. The other poison turned Brianna's green. Why would it be different…"

Jack gasped as he answered his own question. "The General is trying to find a poison immune to Lana's healing!"

"But that's impossible, right?" Brianna asked. She elbowed Jack just in case he didn't have the common sense to say 'Of course, Dekka will be fine,' or even just plain 'Yes.'

"Not really. Remember, the bugs were immune to Sam's light and the flu was immune to Lana's healing? So it is possible," Jack said. Brianna smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Jack grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"At least the bleeding stopped so I can have my shirt back," Jack said and held up his blood-stained shirt. He wrinkled his nose. "On second thought, I think you should keep it for extra support for your leg."

Brianna heard a car engine, and it was growing louder.

"What if it's the General!" Jack yelled.

"It could be our friends," Brianna said.

"Or some random person," Dekka said. The three kids looked at each other and silently decided to not run from the car. It stopped a few feet away from them. The door opened.

"We have been searching for you guys since FOREVER," a familiar voice said. Jack, Brianna, and Dekka grinned. Sanjit stepped out of the car. Howard came out of the passenger seat, and Dahra and John came out of the back.

"Orc, Toto, Albert, and sometimes Bug are with us, too. They're back at HQ, though," Sanit said. He was grinning at them. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Have you found the others?" Brianna asked as they headed into the van. Dahra shook her head.

"You're the first ones we found so far," she said.

"Well, I know how I can easily find them," Jack said. He started explaining everything they went through, with the occasional 'And then I chopped his head off!' or 'You should've seen how awesome I looked!' from Brianna. Jack decided not to mention the fact that Brianna chopped no one's head off, and she spent the majority of their time there either poisoned or handcuffed.

"So, they're trying to create an army of mutants using your powers?" Howard summed up. Jack, Dekka, and Brianna nodded.

"How have you guys been since we've last seen you?" Brianna said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, Albert has been trying to round up all the FAYZians ever since the world heard about your escape from the military base," John said.

"I left my parents but told Virtue to stay when Albert emailed me," Sanjit said.

"You should have seen the email, though. It started with 'To whom it may concern:' I almost said no because of that," Howard said.

"It's a good thing you didn't. You would have missed out on all the fun," Brianna said and slapped Howard on the back.

"Mmmhmm. All the fun," he muttered.

"Where is this HQ?" Jack asked.

"It's an abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere. Amazing, huh?" Sanjit said and grinned.

* * *

"Sam, Quinn, Edilio," Astrid whispered urgently as she prodded the sleeping boys.

"What? I'm up," Sam said as he jerked up. Astrid shushed him.

"There's someone outside," she whispered. Quinn and Edilio were up, too.

"Maybe they're good?" Quinn said. Astrid strained her ears, trying to make out what they were saying. The voices sounded familiar…

"Shhhh," Astrid said. Quinn opened his mouth, probably to say "I wasn't even talking!" but stopped because the voices outside got louder.

"Open up this door for me, will you, Orc?" said a voice that Astrid recognized. All four of them gasped and bolted towards the door, eager to greet Albert and Orc, and maybe others. The door swung open and Albert jumped back, startled at seeing Edilio, Quinn, Sam, and Astrid.

"You're here!" he said, shocked. "Sanjit and the others just went out to go looking for you and the others!"

"Why are you here, then?" Astrid asked, frowning.

"This is the basecamp for the FAYZians. I've been trying to find everyone ever since you escaped from the military base," Albert said. Astrid noticed two more people behind Orc and Albert.

"Hi Bug and Toto," Astrid said. Bug disappeared and Toto was in the middle of a lively conversation with Spidey, so didn't notice Astrid's greeting.

"Who else do you have?" Sam asked.

"Us four, Sanjit, Dahra, Howard, and John," Albert replied. "And the others who escaped from the military base once we find them.

"Is this really the best place for a basecamp?" Edilio asked. "Anyone, like us, for example, could just stumble upon it."

"Ah, but technically, you didn't," Albert said mysteriously. He swiftly walked in and motioned to Orc, who pushed aside the largest box. Underneath it was a trap door.

"This is the real basecamp. We call it the HQ," Albert said. He opened the trap door and started climbing down the vertical ladder. "Come. It's actually quite big."

One by one, everyone followed Albert down into HQ. Finally when they were at the bottom of the ladder, the kids all gasped. Astrid was expecting a cold, dirty, dark room with concrete floor, walls, and ceilings. What they actually saw was the complete opposite. The ground was a squishy carpet that could easily be slept on and you wouldn't even notice. Although they wouldn't have to, because one side of the room was full of bunk beds that were in the wall, so they didn't waste space. The opposite side of the room were piles of canned foods, cereal, and other non-perishable foods. There was some bean bag chairs in the corners, and three doors at the opposite wall of the ladder. Two of the doors obviously led to a girls and boys bathroom.

"What's behind that third door?" Astrid asked.

"The place Jack will spend most of his time, if we find him," Albert said as he opened the door. the room was filled with blinking lights, glowing monitors, and tangled wires all over the place.

"How did you find this place?" Quinn said in awe. Albert shrugged.

"Happy mistake," he said. Astrid frowned, but Albert didn't offer up a more detailed explanation. She decided to let it go and counted the beds.

"16 beds. And there's most likely going to be 20 of us, if everything goes as planned," Astrid said. She saw Albert frown and added, "Katie is a girl who helped us escape. She's sticking with us, for now."

"Well, Caine and Diana can share a bed, Astrid and I can share a bed, and two people could sleep on the floor or share a bed with someone," Sam said.

They heard a car door shut outside.

"That's probably Sanjit and them," Albert said. "But before we go up, they have to yell 'It's just a FAYZ' so we know it's them. Of course, Sanjit may forget that."

But, Astrid heard the unmistakable voice of Sanjit yell, "Hey Albert! It's just a FAYZ! Now, will you let us down there? Dekka's hurt!"

Sam, Quinn, and Edilio gave a whoop of joy because Sanjit had found Dekka. And maybe others. The trap door opened and Sanjit, Dahra, John, and Howard entered the room. Brianna and Jack, who was carrying Dekka, joined them.

"Did you miss me?" Brianna said and beamed.

"Of course we did," Edilio said while he laughed. Jack laid Dekka down on a bed.

"I need to see a computer, immediately," he said urgently. "Oh, and I noticed those CB radios and walkie talkies up there. I wonder if I could wire them…"

Jack was interrupted by Albert. "The computers are in there."

"Right!" Jack said and ran into the computer room, shutting the door behind him, leaving everyone staring, confused, at the door.

"He's going to hack into some thing and use the tracking systems to find the others," Brianna said. "Oh, and Sam, you better find the mini GPS systems on you, or else the General could be knocking on our door any minute."

Sam started searching his clothes frantically, until triumphantly holding up a tiny black tracking device. Brianna grabbed it and was gone in a gust of wind. It didn't take long for her to return, dusting her hands off.

"What happened to Dekka?" Edilio asked.

"She got shot in her leg, and that's why we were separated from you guys. She's also poisoned, so we better find Lana ASAP," Brianna said. Sam blinked and shook his head.

"She's what?" he asked. Brianna sighed.

"She's poisoned. P-O-I, oh, you get the rest. I don't need to spell it out for you," she said. Dahra was already working on her.

"Need any help?" Astrid said as she approached Dahra.

"Maybe a guide to how to deal with poisoned bullet wounds," she muttered. "I know how to deal with venomous snake bites, so I'll just do that for now."

"Aren't you supposed to suck the venom out?" Quinn asked.

"No. That actually could make it worse. The best thing to do is stay calm, so your heart doesn't pump the blood faster, causing the venom to reach your vitals faster, and wrap a loose cloth above where the venom is to slow the blood flow." Dahra said. She did all of that, and sat back, watching Dekka, who was sleeping.

"It's best she stays sleeping," Dahra said. "There's nothing else we can do until we find Lana."

Jack came bursting out of the computer room, holding a paper.

"I know where they are!" he said.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hi everyone! Thank you for reading and please leave a review!**

* * *

Two days had went by. Two days Diana, Caine, Katie, Taylor, and Lana have been living with Leo and Lily. And in those two days, Diana's stomach had grown at an unbelievable rate. Already it looked like she was almost due.

"Need anything?" Leo asked Diana, as he frequently did. Diana shook her head. The seven of them were sitting around in the living room, watching the news. Occasionally a story about them came up.

"Sandra is now live with an eyewitness of the fateful incident caused by the now famous Perdido Beach Anomaly kids. Over to you, Sandra," the anchorman said. The screen cut to a woman in what looked like the middle of the desert with another man.

"Now, what exactly happened at this military base?" Sandra asked the man. The TV screen showed his name was Greg and that he was a mechanic who was working on the trucks at the time.

"Well, there was a lot of shouting and gun noises inside. So I stopped what I was doing and looked over in time so see a boy run out. You could tell that he would kill anyone on sight, that he was not mentally stable. And then he shot green lazers out of his hands! They sliced a man's legs off! God bless those CIA workers who fell because of these demon kids. They need to be taken away from us. They're a danger to our safety," Greg said. Katie scowled and turned the television off.

"This happens all the time. The CIA can't tell the media the truth, so they make it up!" she said. "If only they knew who those people actually were in there…"

"What other conspiracy theories are actually true, then?" Leo asked eagerly. He gasped. "Do you know about Area 51?"

Katie rolled her eyes and left Leo's questions unanswered.

"I take your silence as a yes!" he said importantly.

"Whatever floats your boat," Katie said.

Lily tugged on Diana's sleeve. Diana had become fond of Lily, and would comb her hair and put it in braids. She felt like she was training for when her baby came.

"I'm hungry," Lily whispered in Diana's ear.

"Do you want some Cheerios?" Diana asked her. Lily nodded her head. Diana slowly got up, it took a lot of practice but she didn't almost fall backwards anymore. She wasn't used to having what felt like a bowling ball in front of her. Diana grabbed Lily's hand and they walked into the kitchen.

"I'm glad Diana can take care of Lily. All that combing hair and stuff got annoying," Leo said once Diana and Lily were out of earshot.

"Yeah, I can't even imagine. You've been on your own for a week. Kind of like a mini FAYZ," Katie said.

"Except this FAYZ didn't have a Gaiaphage trying to manipulate you into shooting your friend. And it didn't have mutant bugs that ate people from the inside, or a flu that literally made you cough up a lung," Lana said. Katie and Leo just stared at her. They have never heard that any of that happened.

"Don't forget the whip-handed boy that roamed the land killing everyone in sight. Oh, wait, I guess you still have to worry about that little issue," Caine said.

"And there was the fires, the talking coyotes, the Zekes who ate you alive, the flying snakes that shot poison, the starving… but the drama was excellent. TV show worthy drama," Taylor added.

"You're scaring the children," Diana chided. Leo didn't notice she entered.

"Well, I'm not necessarily a child," he said.

"Yeah, right. And when was the last time you two had a haircut? Lily is starting to look like Rapunzel, and you're starting to look like a girl. Or like Justin Bieber," Diana said. Leo dramatically flipped his hair to the side and batted his eyelashes at Diana.

"You know you love it," he said, causing the kids to crack up. In the past two days, Leo was already beginning to feel like family to them. As well as Lily. Katie had already long been part of their makeshift FAYZ family, even though she was never part of the FAYZ.

"Now, are you guys going to elaborate on the list of horrifyingly gruesome things you just blurted out, or am I going to have to wheedle it out of you? Because that is the makings of a great horror story. I could make a lot of money off of it. Of course, I would give you some of the shares. 20, maybe 30% if I'm feeling generous," Leo said. Caine shook his head.

"I'm not reliving the story of our life just for your entertainment," he said.

"Don't think of it as for my entertainment. Just pretend I'm on my deathbed, and my dying wish is to hear your graphic and gory war stories in the Fallout Alley Youth Zone," Leo said. He gave Caine puppy dog eyes.

"See, Katie doesn't beg. Heck, she never even asked us," Lana said.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to know," Katie said.

The seven kid's moment of peace was ended by the sound of several cars screeching to a stop in front of the house.

"Time to have some fun," Caine said as he stood up.

"Awesome," Leo whispered, watching Caine with awestruck.

"Come, Lily. Let's go wait in this nice corner over here," Diana said in the sweetest voice she could manage. Lily gripped Diana's hand as they huddled in the corner. Diana felt a sharp pain in her stomach for a second, but she quickly waved it away. She was probably nervous. Lana and Katie joined Diana and Lily in the corner.

"Leo, have any weapons? Probably not, though," Caine asked.

"Well, I have some NERF guns. And other NERF merchandise. But nothing that would help. You could always chuck the furniture at their heads," Leo offered.

The men who came out of the cars were heavily armed and came trotting up to the front door. Some went around to the back.

"Caine, you're the only one who can actually fight. And we have two liabilities. Maybe four," Lana said. Diana suspected she was a liability.

"Yeah, I'm not going to just surrender," Caine said. "I'll bring this house down on top of us, if I have too."

"Wait, what?" Leo said. But before he could get clarification, the soldiers burst in, shooting wildly.

Caine telepathically threw furniture at them left and right, knocking the men to the ground. Getting furniture thrown at them seemed to mess up their aim, because none of the bullets were even close to hitting any of them. Diana didn't even know where Taylor went, she probably bounced up into Leo's room to hide. Diana felt another sharp pain in her stomach.

"Oh crap," she muttered. Lana heard her.

"What is it? And please don't say it's a contraction," she said.

"It's a contraction," Diana replied, causing Lana to swear. Diana covered Lily's ears. "But it's fine until it happens five to seven minutes apart from the last one."

The soldiers started to retreat, but only to reload their guns.

"Let's go, now," Caine said.

"They're surrounding the building. And I'm starting to go into labor!" Diana said. Caine froze.

"What?" he said.

"You heard me," Diana replied.

"Bad timing, huh?" Leo said. Diana felt another sharp pain in her stomach. She looked at the clock. It had been nine minutes since the last one.

"Well, everyone else start escaping somehow. I'll try and distract them," Caine said, still not taking his eyes off Diana. "Run to the gas station and wait there for me. I have no idea where Taylor went."

Taylor conveniently bounced in at the mention of her name.

"I was hiding in Leo's bedroom. And OMG, Diana, did you pee your pants?" Taylor squealed. Diana didn't listen to her because she was too busy silently freaking out over the fact that her water broke.

"My jeans are ruined!" Diana gasped. Then she realized what it meant if your water broke. "And I'm going to have a baby! Oh, God, I'm not ready."

"Okay, this is ridiculous, why don't we just talk to the people out there and explain the situation?" Leo said. "A girl is about to have a freaking baby, and they're out there trying to murder us!"

"Welcome to our life," Lana muttered. Then she turned her attention to Diana. "Okay, I'm sure you've watched plenty of TV shows and movies where someone starts going into labor and they can't get to the hospitable in time. So, just breath in and out slowly and stay calm. Everything probably isn't going to be okay, but I'm going to lie to you anyways; everything's going to be okay."

"Thanks a lot, Lana," Diana snapped at her in between deep breaths.

"Taylor, Lana, Katie, help Diana get outside of the house. Leo, you go with them and bring Lily. I'm going to bring the house down on these idiots who might kill my unborn child," Caine said. He glared at the soldiers who were getting ready to come back inside.

"Got it, boss," Leo said and saluted to Caine. He put his arms around Lana's and Katie's shoulders. "Let's go, ladies."

"I swear to God I would shoot you," Lana snarled at him.

"Let's climb out the bathroom window. It's on the side of the house, so maybe they won't be waiting there," Leo said as they walked as fast as they could towards the bathroom.

"I'm not exactly in the best condition to be climbing out a window," Diana panted. Then the doors burst open and soldiers found themselves trapped by Caine's telekinetic grip. He flung them one by one through the doors. Taylor lost it.

"Forget this! I'll be waiting at the gas station! I think I can bounce that far," she cried and was gone.

The now group of five bolted for the back door, not caring that there was probably people waiting out there with guns. While Caine could hold most of the soldiers, some managed to miss his grip and fired towards them. One almost Diana, she could feel the wind from hit on her back. Caine saw and he exploded one wall outwards, causing the roof to sag. All of the agents on that side of the house where hit by the wall.

"I hope insurance covers that," Leo said while he watched the ceiling groan and creak as it started to fall in.

"I'll never make it," Diana panted. She was hobbling as fast as she could. Her pants were all wet and sticky, and her contractions were happening more and were more painful.

"I'm going to carry you out," Caine yelled and grabbed Diana with the invisible force. She yelled at him to grab Lily, who was crying and screaming and covering her ears, and he did. They kids ran out through the hole in the wall just as the ceiling collapsed behind them. By then the soldiers had recovered from the shock and continued shooting at them. Caine set Lily and Diana down and continued to chuck the armed agents into the air.

Leo saw a stray bullet head straight towards Diana. He felt like the world was moving in slow motion, and before he realized what was going on, he dived for her. He noted to himself that tackling someone in labor was probably not the brightest idea. He felt himself slam into Diana and her crying out as they hit the ground.

"I just saved your life. You owe me some FAYZ stories, now," Leo panted. He stood up, but then his leg gave out under him. Diana gasped.

"You were shot," she cried. "Lana! Leo was shot!"

Leo looked down at his leg and saw blood. Then the pain hit him. How he hadn't noticed it before, he didn't know. It felt like his whole leg was on fire. He tried not to scream, because that would make Lily start to cry.

"It's okay, Leo. It's healing," Lana said. Then her soothing tone changed to worried. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"You better work on your bedside manner," Leo said as he grimaced.

"Yeah, I know. You're not the first one who's told me that. But the poison, it isn't healing! It's immune!" Lana said. Katie gasped.

"They can do that? Create poison that's immune to you?" she cried. Lily started crying.

"Everything is loud and everyone is screaming and there are bad people and you have a boo boo!" she wailed. Leo started feeling dizzy. He didn't know if it was from blood loss or from the poison. Probably both. Leo noticed Caine sink to his knees through his blurring vision. He was probably exhausted. It would only be a matter of time before the agents took them all away, now that Caine wasn't fighting…

"Oh, great! Another car!" Katie cried, She started hyperventilating. "Why did I get myself into this! My mom always said 'Behave yourself, don't go looking for trouble' but I didn't know I would end up being used as target practice while helping children wanted by an evil corporation escape!"

The car screeched to a halt and Sam, Brianna, and Edilio leaped out. Sam started shooting his laser at the soldiers' legs as soon as his feet hit the ground, and Brianna gave them all the middle finger before she zoomed off, holding a wire. Edilio sprinted over to Caine to help him up. Jack, being much less graceful, toppled out of the car and landed on his hands and knees. He jumped up, dusted himself off, and ran over to Leo.

"What happened?" Jack yelled.

"Leo dived to save me from a bullet but got shot himself. And I'm having my baby RIGHT NOW!" Diana screamed while crying.

"Okay, so I'm assuming the fainted kid is Leo, and the little girl is..?" Jack said while picking Leo up.

"It doesn't matter right now! Just get everyone into the car!" Lana snapped. Jack flinched at her harshness and ran for the car. He gently placed Leo in the back seat, then ran back.

"Okay, come on, Diana," Jack panted. Diana grimaced, another contraction. She shook her head.

"Lily first," she said. She was taking deep breaths, like Lana advised her too. Jack picked up a crying Lily and ran to the car.

Brianna, Sam, Caine, and Edilio joined the others. Diana hadn't noticed the fighting was over, all of the soldiers lay unconscious. Not dead, just unconscious. Caine kneeled next to Diana and grabbed her hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Diana shook her head.

"Okay, I'm going to ask everyone to look away," Lana said. She was holding a knife, which she used to cut Diana's jeans off her.

"Now they're definitely ruined," Diana said. Then she cried out, this contraction was the worse.

Edilio, Sam, Katie, and Caine shut their eyes. Brianna sat down next to Lana to help.

It was a lot of screaming and crying later until Diana took a deep breath of relief. In the middle of it, Jack had come back from the car, turned green, and ran away to vomit in a bush. Now the kids were all stuffed in the car, heading back to the HQ after picking Taylor up. Everyone else was fretting over Leo and the fact that they left a whole bunch of unconscious soldiers laying around at the house, but not Diana. She was too busy smiling at her crying baby boy.

* * *

**I made the baby a boy because Lily is kind of like Diana's daughter, now. **


	25. Chapter 25

**Thank you for reading and don't forget to review! **

* * *

"How hard is it to capture a bunch of kids!" the General snarled at the soldier cowering in front of him.

"To be fair, they do have powers," the soldier said timidly. The General spat at the ground in front of him.

"Drake, take him away. Do what you want," he ordered. Drake smiled down at the soldiers.

"Yes, of course. I'll make things, fun," Drake said and dragged the whimpering soldier away.

"Dr. Weigman, come with me into the Extractor room. Scarlet, get the girl," the General said. "It's time to finally use this Extractor. Next time I catch those kids, I'm doing it one by one."

"I'm coming sir! And I assure you, the Extractor will work fabulously on the girl. But I can only duplicate the mutation 20 times until it becomes useless," Dr. Weigman stammered. "But do you really trust Scarlet enough to let her in the inner circle?"

The General turned on Dr. Weigman, causing him to stumble backwards and whimper. "You will call her Ms. Meadows. And you will not say anything bad about her in front of me. She swore to be loyal to me. Of course, that's only because she believes what I said about the children causing her son to die."

Dr. Weigman wanted to mention that if Ms. Meadows actually found out what happened, she would turn on the General. But the General looked like he was about to breath fire.

"Get the Extractor warmed up. I want this over quick," the General said and walked out the door. Dr. Weigman scampered after him.

* * *

"Can you tell me the stories now? Technically, I'm on my deathbed," Leo said to Caine as Dahra and Lana tried to do anything to heal the poison.

"Oh, and just so you know; Lily has asthma, her inhaler is in my pocket. She is allergic to peanuts and walnuts. Deathly allergic. So no Reese's Cups, even though she may ask for them. And her asthma isn't too severe, but it scares her when she has an asthma attack," Leo explained. He was still looking optimistic. Diana was silently crying while sitting with her baby. Lily was standing next to Leo, not understanding what was going on.

"Can we play?" Lily asked Leo. Everyone froze in horror, not wanting to see Lily become sad.

"Why don't you go play with John?" Leo said. John grabbed Lily's hand and led her up the stairs.

"Let's go play, Lily," he said sweetly.

Leo sighed. "I guess you don't have to tell me your war stories. After all, I have my own, now. Too bad I won't be able to brag about to anyone..."

Katie lost it and broke down crying then. Jack turned green and disappeared into the computer room.

"Look, this poison is bright purple. Dekka's is orange and Brianna's was green," Astrid said. "That means so far only the purple is bad."

When the kids returned, Lana had immediately healed Dekka. Just in time, too. The orange poison had been dangerously close to her torso. Dekka was peaceful resting, now.

"Just my luck, huh?" Leo said. "I guess this is what dying is like."

"Don't say that, you'll be fine," Sam said.

"He doesn't believe that, Spidey," Toto interrupted. Sam glared at him.

"What are you going to name your baby, Diana?" Leo asked.

"I'm thinking-" Diana started to say.

"Leo," Caine interrupted. "You should name him Leo."

Leo didn't want to get emotional, so instead he said, "If he takes your last name, Diana, you should give him a middle name that starts with O. Then his initials would be L.O.L."

Diana started crying more. Leo felt a little guilty.

"Is my idea that bad?" he joked. "You could always give him a middle name that starts with L. Then his friends could call him Triple L."

Diana shook her head and ran out the room, still crying. Before she went she laid baby Leo next to his namesake.

"You are the future, little one," Leo said dramatically to the baby. "You are the future."

Now everyone in the room was laughing and crying, but mostly crying.

"You know at funerals, how people say words to the dead person? Well, I would rather have you say the words to me right now. So then I can just go straight to Heaven instead of having to wait around. I hear the airfare can get pretty ugly if you wait too long," Leo said.

"Okay, I'll go first," Caine said. "Leo… um…"

"Meadows. My last name is Meadows," Leo supplied. Caine nodded.

"Leo Meadows was helpful, optimistic, and it's all our fault that he passed away. He got fatally injured while saving two people; Diana and my child. My son will be named Leo, because if it wasn't for Leo he wouldn't be alive," he said.

"That was beautiful. I think I'm tearing up," Leo said in a joking voice. He wished he was joking. Everyone else took their turn saying their piece about Leo. Finally, Lily was the only one left in the room who hadn't said anything; John had recently returned with her. Jack still hadn't come out of the computer room and Diana was still outside.

"Are you going to see Daddy?" she asked. Leo nodded. "Okay."

Lily sat down quietly and swung her legs back and forth. The rest of the kids joined her.

"Well, I think I'm going to go, now. See you in the morning," Leo said with a half smile. "Good night."

"Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite," Lily finished in a sing song voice. Leo closed his eyes, and soon he was gone.

Edilio took Leo outside and dug him a grave. After he took Lily's inhaler out of his pockets, Edilio buried him. He ordered Jack to find a big rock to use as a gravestone.

When Edilio came back down, Diana was sitting silently in one of the bean bag chairs, holding baby Leo. For a newly born baby, he was very large. Of course, he was probably still growing faster than usual. He had Diana's dark eyes, but Caine's face. Surprisingly, his hair looked like it was going to be a light brown, almost like Sam's hair. Diana read him and announced he was a three bar.

"I'm guessing his power will either be Diana's or Caine's. Or maybe a combination of them both. It could be something completely different, though," Astrid said.

"What would a combination of telekinesis and whatever Diana's is be?" Howard asked.

"Probably controlling other people's powers," Albert answered. Everyone stood in silence after that, watching the baby. Jack emerged from the computer room and stretched.

"It's 10:00. Should we go to bed?" he said. Everyone silently agreed and headed off into their beds. None of them talked, but none of them except Lily and baby Leo slept, either.


	26. Chapter 26

**Hello everyone! Thank you for reading and I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! Everything in italics is Diana's dream, which is most of this chapter. Practically the whole chapter.**

* * *

Diana eventually fell asleep. And she dreamed.

_I looked up at the clock. 10:17. The day wasn't going by fast enough. I groaned as Ms. Meadows, my teacher, continued a lecture about something I didn't bother to listen to._

_Ms. Meadows was the science teacher, and it was common knowledge that she and the assistant principal had a thing for each other. The assistant principal was Mr. Angeler, and he was very strict. No one dared break rules around him, even Drake. Mr. Angeler always wore sunglasses, the type that FBI agents wore. Popular gossip was guesses on why he never let anyone see his eyes. Some of the theories could get pretty crazy._

_The class would end in 13 minutes. Only 13, and then I would get a free period. Caine told me to meet him in his dorm. Drake would be there. I scowled at the thought of Drake. We didn't exactly get along, but were both loyal to Caine. Or at least Drake was loyal to Caine for now._

_I looked up at the clock again. 10:18. 12 more minutes._

_Then the girl sitting next to me screamed, making me jump. I looked around to make sure no one noticed._

_"Ms. Meadows?" she squealed. I looked towards the front of the room and gasped._

_Ms. Meadows was gone._

_I immediately stood up and looked around at everyone in my class. Caine and Drake didn't share the same class as me this period. But I knew what Caine would want me to do, he's been preparing Drake and I ever since he shared his secret._

_"Everyone, it's going to be okay," I said in a soothing voice. I gave them all a fake smile, but my class seemed to believe it. I reached for the girl's hand who screamed._

_"It's okay," I said. She believed I was holding her hand to comfort her._

_0 bars._

_I held everyone else's hand in the room, and only one of them had 3 bars. A girl named Dekka._

_Soon Caine's voice came over the intercom._

_"It seems all of the adults had disappeared. Now is not a time to panic. I would like everyone in the school to quickly and calmly head into the auditorium in 5 minutes. I promise, we will figure out what has happened," Caine said smoothly. I noticed everyone else in the room seemed to be calming down. I smirked. If only they knew what Caine could do. What some of them could do._

_"Everyone, remember to go to the auditorium in 5 minutes. I am going early to help Caine," I said. I glanced around the room one more time and left._

_My classroom was relatively close to the auditorium. I immediately spotted Caine with Drake following behind him like a pet dog. I was surprised to see a 5th grader named Computer Jack, trailing behind Caine and looking confused and worried. He blushed and refused to make eye contact when he saw me._

_"Excellent, i was hoping you would be here," Caine said with a smile. I decided to not return the smile._

_"Why is he here?" I said, nodding towards Jack._

_"He is officially my tech guy," Caine said. Computer Jack put on a smug smile._

_"I'm going to keep a list of all the kids with powers," he said as he pulled out a PDA from his pocket. "You have to read all the kids before they enter the auditorium and tell me who's got powers and what level they are."_

_I glanced at Caine. "What will you be telling them in there?"_

_"Well, everyone with a power is going to head off into a room with Drake. I made him promise not to frighten them. Once I finish calming the normal kids down and making sure they don't freak out, you, Jack, and I will join Drake and try and figure out everyone's power," Caine explained._

_"And then we will greet the Perdido Beach kids," Drake said and grinned. His grin was unsettling, like a shark._

_"But first, I will need to find a way to make sure everyone who isn't loyal to me is dealt with," Caine said. I noticed Computer Jack shift his feet. I decided to ask him what he knows later._

_"Alright," Caine said and clapped his hands together. "The school should be coming down any minute now. Better get ready."_

_Caine strutted into the auditorium, leaving me with Jack and Drake. I heard footsteps coming our way, and looked down the hall, seeing about a hundred kids coming. Drake grabbed a chair and stood on it._

_"Everyone!" he yelled. The students all stopped abruptly and coward. Everyone was scared of Drake. Everyone except Caine and I, at least. "Single file line. Before you are allowed to enter the auditorium, Diana has to find out whether you have a power or not!"_

_"Way to say it lightly," I muttered, looking at all there shocked and confused faces._

_"Powers?" a girl who was in my last class cried accusingly. "Is this a joke?"_

_"Yes, we all planned this joke. The adults disappearing, everything. Isn't it hilarious?" I shot back at her. "Now will everyone get in a line, now."_

_One by one the kids all followed Drake's orders. Soon it became a pattern._

_"Name," I said._

_"Brianna," a girl with red hair replied. She stuck out her hand._

_"3," I muttered to Jack. He hesitated a little before adding Brianna to the list. Now there were four; Caine, me, Dekka, and Brianna._

_"Now go follow Drake," I said and the girl walked towards Drake. "Next."_

_"Andrew," a kid said. He stuck out his hand._

_"3," I muttered to Jack again. He added Andrew's name._

_And on it went, until every kid with a power was accounted for. I could hear Caine faintly through the door, talking in his way that makes you trust him._

_"Let's go in the room Drake is in," I said. Computer Jack didn't answer, he was engrossed in his PDA, scrolling through names and doing who-knows-what. I rolled my eyes._

_"Hey Jack," I purred and brushed my hand against his cheek. Jack's eyes got wide as he looked up at me and whimpered. "Now that I've got your attention, let's go join Drake and the others."_

_Jack nodded, even though I'm not sure he heard a word I said. I started towards the empty classroom, pleased that Jack was following me like a puppy._

_We entered the classroom, and were greeted by the relieved kids. They had not enjoyed their time alone with Drake, who was staring down on them like a hawk._

_"What's going on?"_

_"Why weren't we allowed in the auditorium?"_

_"What's my power?"_

_"Don't worry. Caine will answer all of your questions once he comes. You are the special ones, you will get special treatment," I said, silencing them all. I gently placed my hand on Jack's back, making him flinch, and guided him out the room._

_"How many are there?" I asked him. He fumbled for his PDA._

_"Diana, Caine, Dekka, Brianna, Taylor, Andrew, Bug, Frederico, Benno-" he started listing before I interrupted him._

_"Just a number. I only need a number," I said exasperatedly._

_"R-right," he said and nodded. Jack punched a few buttons._

_"28," he said._

_"Hmm. That's quite a lot," I replied._

_"It's 8% of the entire population...now," Jack said. "If Caine was right guessing that everyone 15 and over is gone."_

_How Jack knew what the population was, I didn't know. And didn't care. "But that's not including kids from Perdido that have a power."_

_Jack thought a minute. Finally, he said, "I think we should expect 32 kids from Perdido to have a power, but that's statistically speaking."_

_I nodded. Caine wouldn't like hearing that, he won't want anyone to be more powerful than him. "Don't repeat any of that to Caine," I told Jack. He looked like he was about to ask why, but then I heard a familiar voice behind me._

_"Hey Diana. Computer Jack," Caine said. "How many?"_

_"28. 8% of the entire population," Jack said proudly._

_"Good. Let me speak to them, follow me," Caine said. He brushed his hands through his hair, straightened his uniform, and walked into the room._

_"Good afternoon, everyone," Caine said with a smile. Only half of them returned the smile._

_"We want to know what's going on!" the girl named Brianna called. Her hands were on her hips. "Jack, you're probably the only reasonable one! Why don't you tell us, we all know you four know what's going on!"_

_Jack whimpered and looked at Caine. I could tell Caine was trying to keep himself from getting to angry. Finally, he smiled again._

_"Now now. What's your name?"_

_"Brianna," she said defensively._

_"Do you have any idea what your power is?"_

_"Why should I tell you?"_

_"We're all friends here. You can trust me. Only together we stand a chance, only together we can all survive through this...unfortunate… situation."_

_"I don't think I should tell you. I think I don't want to be your servant."_

_Caine stared at Brianna, and Brianna glared back. Everyone in the room held their breath, waiting for Caine to snap. Drake stepped up._

_"You will tell us, or I will make sure you regret it," he snarled._

_"No, Drake. Let me handle this," Caine said and stepped in front of Drake. "Brianna, if you don't want to tell us, we will just banish you from Coates."_

_"But what if her power is dangerous?" Jack blurted out. He noticed everyone started looking at him and shrunk against the corner. Caine looked frustrated._

_"I will deal with you later," he said coldly. "Would anyone else like to tell me their power?"_

_One by one, everyone willing to work for Caine told him their power, and everyone else stood with Brianna on the opposite side of the room. Caine gave them one last furious glare before ordering his followers out into the hallway._

_"I need a way to keep them contained. So they aren't a threat," Caine said._

_"Why don't you just let me deal with them?" Drake said and smiled at the thought. I looked at Jack, who was squirming like he was trying to decide something._

_"I think Computer Jack has an idea," I said. He looked at me like I betrayed him. I smiled back at him with pity._

_"What is it, Computer Jack?" Caine said. Jack nervously pushed his glasses back up._

_"Well, the powers look like they're focused through the hands," he said. "So if you trap their hands…"_

_Caine smiled and patted Jack on the back. "Great job. I knew you were very smart boy. And smart people deserved to be respected, they deserve to be important. And as long as you stay loyal to me, you will be both of those. And more."_

_Jack looked like he didn't know whether to feel good or bad about himself._

_"Drake, I want you to go find out how to make concrete. Bring everyone except Diana with you. Diana and I are going to talk to the others inside the classroom. Try to change their mind," Caine ordered. Drake immediately started strutting down the hallway, yelling at everyone else to keep up. Jack gave a pleading look to Caine and me before reluctantly following Drake._

_"Let's go," Caine said. He started walking in the door, but then everything started to fade. I started freaking out, and then I heard a baby crying. But there are no babies in Coates…_

Diana woke to the sound of Leo crying. She scrambled off her bed and cradled Leo, trying to get him to stop crying before he woke the others. But Diana realized it was too late; everyone else was starting to get up. Diana felt a little bad, but relieved because she just realized something important from her dream.

Ms. Meadows was Leo and Lily's mom, and Mr. Angeler was the General.

Which meant the General had been watching them all along.


End file.
